Sixteen Awakening
by NintendoGal55
Summary: At sixteen, while on an extended visit in Hillwood, Arnold not only reconnects with his friends and old times, but also, having to battle his ongoing sexual desires regarding Helga. As for Helga, she too is facing the same struggle. AxH Lemon
1. Back Home

**Hello all, so what's this, you might be asking? XD**

**Well, I was browsing the Hey Arnold! Community on LiveJournal, and one of the members posted up a little fanfic proposal. I read it over, and needless to say, I fell in love with it, and decided to take it upon myself to write it. It's just so...oh my gosh.**

**XD There needs to be more sexyness between these two...**

**Anyway, so here's the proposal (edited to fix errors):**

_Helga and Arnold- age 16ish_

_Either they are a brand new couple and haven't really gotten super physical yet or, to stick more to cannon, they dated when they were younger (more meaningful and loving than most early pubescent relationships, sort of like Kevin and Winnie from the Wonder years, in that they both needed each other emotionally) but they broke up because of San Lorenzo long distance but remained close through letters. Anyways, Arnold is back for an extended visit. Being close friends, they were anxious to hang out with each other. However, Arnold was shocked (right to his groin) when he saw his post pubescent Helga (still quirky but has grown into her looks and figure) for the first time. Now he is battling an overwhelming sexual attraction to her (because Arnold, being a good guy, doesn't want to start something when he doesn't know for sure how long he'll be around even though his body is begging for it). Helga is Helga and we know she would eat him alive if she could (however, being an insecure teenager and being Helga, she's keeping it bottled up). Anyways these tensions will come to head the the dark muggy atmosphere of the drive in._

_LOTS of deliciously awkward sexual tension build-up culminating in a passionate makeout/ fooling around. Feel free to make it smutty._

_They have always had a loving relationship but this is their mature sexual awakening to each other. I think this story has to potential to be funny, sweet and sexy all at once._

_You don't have to follow all of these specifics i would just really love to see this story get written._

**So you can say it's a bit of a challenge kind of thing, right? Well, this is what I'm going to do! :D Bring the idea to life. Let's hope it works out.**

**Enjoy, everyone!**

**Warning: Will contain lots of sexual content. **

**Characters belong to Craig Bartlett**

**--**

_**Life begins after school**_

_**That's when we bend all the rules**_

_**Time to hang with all my friends**_

_**We like to be together**_

_**In a place where we belong**_

_**I'm sixteen**_

_**Starting to find my way**_

_**Got a new job**_

_**Gonna start at the mall today**_

_**Thank God I'm on my own for the first time**_

_**I'm sixteen**_

_**Life is sweet**_

_**When you're growin' up so fast**_

_**You gotta make the good times last**_

_**I'm sixteen (sixteen)**_

_**Gotta make the good times last**_

**-**_6Teen_** theme song**

_Football head,_

_Well, it's been a while since I last wrote, huh? Sorry about that. Stupid school has been weighing me down with ENDLESS amounts of stupid homework! Doi... Well anyway, I won't bore you with my gripes. For now. ;)_

_How are you down there? The jungle life still doing well for you? I sure hope so because you barely even have to worry about cold weather! You lucky bastard. How are your parents doing? Did they get the cookies that I sent them? I'm still surprised they even LIKE those cookies I make. Oh well, no reason I can't gift them with those basic cookies, can I? Guess not. Well, tell them I said hi and wish them luck on their expedition to the Amazon Rain Forest next month._

_Everything is going good here in ol' Hillwood. Geraldo and Phoebe are still going strong as ever, of course. Sid and Stinky got three weeks detention for placing Sid's pet frog, Jumpy, into the cafeteria soup! Ewww! Harold's still working at Mr. Green's shop, of course. I swear, pink boy is going to buy that shop someday. Patty actually started working there about...two weeks ago, I think. She loves it, too. So that's cool for 'em. _

_Can you believe Curly and Rhonda are STILL together? I sure can't! But hey, good for them, I guess. Sheena and Nadine...eh, not much to say about them. They started an environmental/insect club at the beginning of the year, like I said, and it's going pretty well. Eugene is still as clumsy as ever, doi. But he's real sweet, like always. Ah, he may be clumsy but he's a good boy. Don't you think? XD Lila and Stinky are going out now...pretty funny, eh? But good for them, they seem to be a good couple._

_Me? Not much to say here. Miriam still goes to AA meetings, so she's doing better and that's good, I guess. Bob is now selling cell phones and other various electric devices at his store, business has been picking up there. Unfortunately for me, I now have to work there sometimes. I'm not an employee persay, I just help out with little jobs and they pay me for it. Olga is still up in Alaska, of course. Still a teacher. Whoop-dee-fucking-do. I'm doing okay in school, I still write poetry (duh), and I generally go hang with the girls at the mall, or go play basketball with the guys. In all, not much to report. I'm still doing the same._

_I'll come out with it. I really miss you, football head. It's been a few years since we saw each other last. But I guess that's to be expected, what with you in San Lorenzo like you are. (Sigh) But still, I'm trying to save up money to try to come visit you after I graduate high school. Yeah that's right, you can't hide from me forever! Hahaha!!_

_Well...I guess I'll just have to keep trying until then._

_You better write back soon! Or you'll see me sooner than you think! ...And it won't be pleasant._

_..._

_Gah, I can't stay mad at you. I'm just kidding, football head. I'd probably be too busy hugging you to death._

_Miss you tons._

_Helga G. Pataki_

_XOX_

Arnold smiled and chuckled to himself as he read Helga's latest letter. Even in writing, she never failed to keep him on his toes. Not one moment was boring with that girl.

Reading it over once more, he then carefully folded it, placed it back in its envelope and placed it in a box where he kept all the letters that she sent him. Over the past 5 years of living in San Lorenzo with his parents, they kept in touch through letters to each other, and were still very close. Prior to moving there, he and Helga had dated after their adventure in the jungle when trying to find his parents. Arnold had come to realize at the time that he felt the same way about Helga, that they were meant for each other. So when they returned to Hillwood after that adventure, they began dating.

And then came the decision he'd made, that he would go with his parents to San Lorenzo. The Green-Eyed people, though they were no longer in grave danger of the sleeping illness, Miles and Stella had decided that they just couldn't afford being away from them anymore, and decided to move down there to be close by in case of anything. Arnold decided to go too, he felt he owed it to them and wanted to be with them. It was hard leaving Hillwood behind, he especially wasn't crazy about that. Most especially not leaving Helga behind. He loved her so much, and he still did to this very day.

They had broken up before he moved, so that they wouldn't have to face any hardships and if someone came along, they could be with that person. Despite that, they still loved each other, and remained close friends. But so as not to stir any emotions or discomfort, they didn't speak of their feelings for each other. Though he wanted to tell her that he loved her and wanted to be with her again one day. But he feared she may have moved on, and didn't feel that way.

Little did he know, she was feeling the same way.

Still, he and his friends kept in touch through letters, and everything was just fine. Nothing wrong here, right?

Pretty much.

"Hey, son!" Miles greeted, knocking on the door and coming into the room of their hut. "You all right?"

"I'm fine, Dad. I was just reading a letter from Helga." Arnold said, and he looked down at the box filled with her letters, an emotional look coming to his face.

Miles noticed this, and gave a small smile as an idea came to him. "Hey Arnold, listen, I've been thinking. Your mother and I have talked about this, and we can see that you might need some time to reconnect. Summer is finally here, so...what would you say to an extended visit to Hillwood?"

"Really?" Arnold's head snapped to meet his father's gaze.

"You bet, kiddo." Miles grinned. "I know how hard it was for you to leave Hillwood like that. We all appreciate you coming out down here with us, and your Mom and I are so glad we can finally be parents to you after all this time, but I think it's time for you to go back."

Arnold considered this, and was of course jumping at the idea of going back to visit everyone in Hillwood. That last time he'd visited was when he was eleven, about six months after having moved to San Lorenzo. He was sixteen now, as were the rest of his friends and classmates from back home. It would be interesting to see everyone, he'd wanted to for a long time, but never had the chance to do so.

Why not? Maybe it was about time to reconnect with old friends and old ties to his old home. He missed Hillwood, anyway. San Lorenzo was a great place, and he liked being in a natural jungle atmosphere, but Hillwood was and always would be his home.

"You know Dad, I think you're right." Arnold smiled. "I'd love to go back to Hillwood. I miss everyone and I'd love to see them again."

"Great! I'll go let Eduardo know, you can go with him and he'll drop you off there, since he's flying to Canada around next week or so." Miles said, and patted his son on the back.

"I will. Thanks, Dad." Arnold said, getting up from his bed with a bounce in his step.

But first, he had one last thing to do...

--

"Oh great, Miriam forgot to get the mail again..." Helga groaned, picking up the envelopes sitting on the floor in front of the front door. "Ugh...bill, bill, postcard, bill, bill, letter from Arnold, bi-...letter from Arnold!? No WAY!"

"What's that, dear?" Came Miriam's voice from the living room.

"Nothing!" Helga quickly dispersed the mail onto the kitchen table, and fled upstairs to her room, shutting and locking the door. "Yes! Arnold wrote back to me! Let's see what he has to say..."

Helga then went into her closet, shut the door, pushed back her clothes and went to sit next to Arnold's shrine. Yes, she still made shrines to him. Though this time she kept a permanent one, still wrote poems about him, and this time, actually had nice pictures of him and the two of them from their dating days to hang around and look at. She also now had a box filled with his letters and souvenirs he'd sent to her over the years.

Of course Helga still loved Arnold! Why would one think differently? She, too, wanted him back, though she was afraid to admit that to him, since she assumed he was over her or worse, in love with someone else. Sometimes she contemplated telling him how she felt in her letters, but decided against it.

She sat before his shrine, gave a soft sigh, and then opened his letter to see what her beloved had to say.

_Dear Helga,_

_I'm glad things are going well for you, and that everyone else is doing good too. I never would have expected less. XD Did Gerald ever cut his hair like he said he would? I'd still love to know!_

_Everything is fine down here, the Green-Eyed people are all doing well and have a bit more of a stable life these days, which is good news since my parents don't have to worry so much. Plus, rescue teams from the Peace Corps and charities have been helping to build hospitals and schools to be closer to the village, which has been great._

_My parents are both great, as usual. Oh yes, and they got the cookies you sent to them last time, and they enjoyed them thoroughly. I even had a few myself. They're well done, Helga. ;) I love them, too. Don't ever stop making them! Mom and Dad constantly tell me for you to send more cookies. Eduardo, and some of the Green Eyes also love your cookies. XD_

_As for me, I'm doing pretty good. Been helping out the builders with the hospitals and even some new housing developments. Heck, we've even gotten into putting together some indoor plumbing. I'm no builder or craftsman, but I try. XD_

_I really miss you too, Helga, I miss hearing you calling me football head. It's still hard even today not to see you everyday like I used to. I'm glad you're holding up and have been doing well since I left. That's really good to know, because I care about you very much and I want nothing more than for you to be happy. :)_

_Anyway, I have some interesting news for you, actually._

_I'm going to be coming back to Hillwood on the 7__th__, and I'll be visiting for a while. Not sure how long, but definitely long enough to see the gang, see Hillwood again and just enjoy being back home. Yeah, I love San Lorenzo and all, but Hillwood is my home and it always will be. I can't wait to see you again, hammerhead!_

_Hang in there, and I'll see you very soon. :)_

_Love always,_

_Arnold_

_XOX_

Helga gawked at the letter with surprise, unable to believe it. Had he really just casually written that he was coming home to Hillwood for a while? Did he? Did he really just say he was coming to visit? Had she read it wrong?

Reading the entire letter four times, it confirmed that she wasn't crazy. He really was coming home!

"YES!!!" Helga squealed happily, jumping up from her spot in her closet, dancing around a little. "YES YES YES YES!!!! Oh Arnold my love, how I've longed for so long to see you again! At last, two lovers who have been separated for so long can now come back together! ...Okay, so we're not lovers right now, but one day, maybe if I play my cards right..."

She sighed then, sitting back on the floor, leaning her back against the wall. It had been hard to break up with him when they'd been younger. Arnold had said he felt it wasn't fair to tie her down like that when he wasn't here. Helga had been willing to keep it going, but then realized it wouldn't be the same. It was hard, but they'd remained friends and Helga wanted to prove she could do that. It helped a lot, and she was doing just fine. Sure, she missed him terribly, loved him so much and sometimes had sad moments when she'd look back on their good times as a couple and everything, but she took his advice to not let it get to her and focus on the good times they had, and keep each other close.

And they did.

Plus, Helga had done some growing up and maturing, so things were easier for her now.

Still, she longed to be in his arms again, to be loved by him, and to love him too. She longed to kiss him...

Helga sighed, and placed his letter in the box with her other ones.

"Well, at least I'll get to see him, right? ...Maybe I can kiss him just this once while he's here...if I play my cards right, maybe he'll let me."

She was so lost in her fantasies that she barely heard Miriam knocking on her bedroom door.

"Helga! Helga, are you in there, honey?"

"Damn it...always interrupting me!" Helga groaned, and came out of her closet, shutting the door behind her. "What is it, Mom?"

"Your friend Arnold is here to see you!"

"Arnold?!" Helga gasped, and unlocked the door, opening it with a flash. "Really? Arnold's here?!"

"Yes, he's waiting for you on the front step." Miriam smiled. "I guess he came back to Hillwood for a visit, huh?"

"He...he did...." Helga uttered, and then grinned with excitement as she rushed down the stairs to greet him.


	2. Temptation

**And here's chapter two of our epic adventure. XD Sort of.**

**Also, just to clear this up in case anyone gets or got confused, Arnold and Helga do genuinely love each other, it's more than just sex. As the proposal I pasted in the last chapter said, this is just their sexual awakening. And it's because they love each other that drives them to want each other in that way. So don't worry, this is not porn without plot, promise. :)**

**Anyway, enjoy!**

**--**

"Arnold!" Helga exclaimed as she came downstairs, grinning widely.

"Hey, Helga!" Arnold greeted enthusiastically.

The two of them hugged each other tightly, for what seemed like an eternity. And no wonder, they both were in absolute heaven, secretly. Especially after not seeing one another for half a decade!

Two childhood sweethearts, back together again after so long.

Arnold relished the feel of holding Helga again, after having not done so for so long. He realized after having hugged her just now that he once barely even reached her nose, and had to hug her around her waist since he couldn't reach her very high. Now being taller than her, it was the opposite. Still, she felt the same, so small but very toned and athletic, only now she had more of a fill since she too had grown and developed in anatomy standards. It felt SO good to hold her again, that he couldn't help but close his eyes and melt under her embrace.

Helga too was in ecstasy, hugging him with all her might. Just moments ago she'd been longing to be in his arms again, and now look! She too took note of the fact that he was now taller than she was, which was funny since she'd always been taller than him back in their childhood. The boy embracing her wasn't the same football-headed boy she remembered...at least not anatomically. But who cares?! She was so happy!

"I missed you, you know, football head." Helga finally said.

Arnold chuckled. "I know you did. I missed you too, hammerhead."

They pulled back from each other, finally taking a moment to take in the other's appearance.

Needless to say, it was at this moment that their relationship changed forever.

_WOW!_ Helga thought, immediately entranced.

Arnold had grown taller, to about six feet at this point, and he still did look the same. He still had his football-shaped head, of course, those gentle and sweet green eyes. His hair was still unruly as ever, some of it sticking up all over the place while the rest fell down in the back. His omnipresent little blue hat was still there too, of course. He also had a little bit of a tan, which actually looked pretty nice on him, since it contrasted nicely with his eyes and hair colours. His body had taken quite a tone in muscle, but he was still thin as ever, which actually suited him just fine. He wore simple clothing, a yellow and red plaid shirt that was a bigger size version of the one he wore in his childhood, and a pair of jeans with black sneakers.

Needless to say, he was hot. Really hot.

It took all of Helga's strength not to pounce on him and feel him up, God knows her hands were hard to keep still at this point.

As for Arnold, he too, was feeling a very odd new feeling as he laid his eyes on Helga's post pubescent body for the first time.

Although shorter than he was now, she was pretty tall for a girl, around 5'8" or 5'9", which he guessed came from her dad since he was very tall. She had a thin, athletic body tone, developed curves, breasts, hips, and longer hair. She currently wore her now longer blonde hair in the same style pigtails she did as a kid, and had gotten rid of her unibrow. She wore a pink t-shirt with a dark pink stripe that resembled her dress she'd always worn as a child, blue pants, and sandals. Topping it off, she wore a pink baseball cap on her head backwards. And oh, the way her wild but sweet blue eyes seemed to shine...

(A/N: Yes, that's the clothing some artists have designed for her in _The Patakis_.)

She was really beautiful, in her own Helga-ish way.

A strange urge came over him then, feeling the blood in his body rushing all over the place...most notably down south. Wait, what was he thinking?! No no, he couldn't think of her that way! That wasn't fair to her, and he was her friend, and nothing more!

_Oh no, hormones, please don't..._ Arnold begged them.

"Well!" Helga finally said, snapping him out of his reverie, much to his relief. "You're taller than me now, aren't you? I never thought I'd see the day that the once short little football headed geek would be taller than Helga G. Pataki!"

Grinning, Arnold couldn't help but laugh. "Looks like my body finally caught up with my head all right. And wow, I never thought I'd see you without your bow on your head."

"That's what you think!" Helga took off her cap to reveal that she was wearing her bow underneath it. "Sentimental value never fades, Arnoldo."

"No kidding." Arnold indicated to his little hat and chuckled. "Well, you look great Helga, you really do."

Helga blushed a bit, her fingers clutching to her hat a little too tightly. "I...well, thanks Arnold, that's nice of you to say. You don't look too bad yourself."

"I'll take that as a compliment, _senorita_." Arnold winked at her.

"Oh, I bet you know Spanish left and right by now!"

"Actually...no." Arnold admitted sheepishly. "I know some basic sentences and can count up to a thousand...basically, I just know enough to get by. I'm not quite fluent."

"Oh come on." Helga snorted. "Go on, say something for me in Spanish, right now. Anything."

"Um, okay." Arnold rubbed the back of his neck and cleared his throat. "Um... _Te extrañé mucho, mi amiga. Es bueno verte._ To translate, I just said I missed you and that it was good see you."

Helga giggled. "Well! _Merci, mon ami! C'est merveilleux de vous voir encore! J'avais vous vraiment manqué!_"

"Oh right, you've been taking French since Freshman year in high school." Arnold remembered. "You're pretty good at it."

"I'll take that as a compliment too, football head." Helga beamed.

"Good to know." He winked at her again, making her blush. "So, um, when I got back I called Gerald and the gang all agreed to meet in Gerald Field today, since it's been empty today. So I came to surprise you and to bring you along on my way over if you're not too busy."

"Well I do have to squeeze you in a little, since I'm oh-so busy..." Helga said, and then smirked. "Well of COURSE I'm going to go! I'm bored out of my mind!"

Arnold laughed and then went outside, shutting the door behind them. "Boredom is a state of mind, silly."

They headed off down the street, walking and talking together on their way to Gerald Field, their own childhood baseball field.

"For you, maybe." Helga said, plucking his hat off his head and placing it on his nose. "Football head."

"Hey." Arnold grinned, looking at his hat cross-eyed to make her giggle and then took it off his nose and placed it back on his head. "Cut it out, hammerhead."

"Still with that stupid nickname, football head?" Helga smirked.

"You're doing it too."

"Ohhhh, touché. You got me there."

The two of them laughed it up, reliving the old days where they would share a laugh about something...almost anything. It was good to hear each other laugh again, to hear each other talk again. Heck, it was great to be in each other's physical presence again!

"Man Helga, I sure missed the way you laughed." Arnold said, looking at her with a big smile. "And the way you talked. And the way you called me football head. I just missed everything about you."

Helga giggled. "D'awww...you're too sweet, Arnold. I sure missed you too, all of you, really. I missed having my favourite football-headed geek to toss around!"

"Toss around? Well, aren't we confident." Arnold gave a playful smirk. "You probably wouldn't be able to even touch me."

"Oh I can't, huh? Well I'll show you!"

She made a beeline for him, attempting to shove him up against the wall of a nearby building. He was pretty strong, and not as easy to push aside! But of course he let her have her fun, and they were up against the nearby wall. VERY close together. Now he wish he hadn't given in and let her think she won.

Now they stood, face to face, her body pressed up against his, her hands on his shoulders. Neither of them said a word, their eyes locked, and time itself seemed to just stand still.

This was NOT good.

It would be so easy for him to kiss her then, to hold her close. His body, his hormones, were all going nuts. He wanted to have her right then, not even caring about the outside world. This was Helga, the girl he loved so deeply, whom he had not seen in five years, and there she was, all his for the taking. He could just do it. He was one half of a step away from making her his. He wanted to, his body was begging for it like never before.

But no, he couldn't. He couldn't do this to her. He wasn't exactly sure how long he was staying in Hillwood, and he didn't want to start something so deep, so big, and then have to abruptly end it soon after.

No. Arnold knew that no matter how much he wanted her, he couldn't do that to her. And he wouldn't. The right thing to do was to just ignore this and let it pass. He had to. He just couldn't bear to put her through this kind of pain. He loved her way too much to do that.

Meanwhile, Helga was thinking the same thing.

She was so close to him, SO close. She could just kiss him and ravage him right there. He was right there, all hers for the taking. She loved him, and she would eat him alive if she could. Since she knew about sex and was old enough to embrace the hormones, she imagined doing all that with him. It was no secret, well, to her, at least, because didn't tell ANYONE, not even Phoebe, that she wanted him to be her first time. If he couldn't be, then she didn't want one. She wanted him, very badly. Using a toy she'd swiped from her older sister wasn't very helpful, either.

Of course, she was very insecure. Being Helga, of course. And she was still very uncertain of where his feelings stood. What if he didn't love her? What if it would ruin their friendship? That was the last thing she wanted. She could never do that to him, or herself. It wouldn't be fair.

Still, she was lost in the heat of the moment, and yet unsure of what to do.

"Helga...?" Arnold finally said.

"Yes, Arnold?" Helga whispered passionately, leaning closer to him.

"Um...we'd better get going, don't want to keep the others waiting, do we?"

_Keep them waiting! Take me, football head! _Helga wanted to say, but couldn't. Instead she took this as an opportunity to break away from him, no matter how much her body cried out in protest.

"Oh, yeah. We'd better go." She nodded, pretending as if nothing had happened.

The two continued on to Gerald Field, and were silent for a few minutes, feeling a little weirded out by what had happened. But after a while, they got to talking again and just moved on like it was nothing.

Though deep down, they were both facing relief and regret.

--~~--

"And there he is, the man of the hour!" Gerald announced. "Arnold my man, welcome back!"

"Thanks, Gerald." Arnold said, kicking his foot in the dirt a little, and smiling. "I'm glad to be back here and to see all of you."

"And we're ever so happy that you came to visit!" Lila exclaimed. She had to admit, Arnold had grown into quite a hottie! But she was with Stinky and more than content with that.

"It's felt so weird without you and your...quite interesting fashion sense." Rhonda mentioned, though everyone could tell she said it with contempt.

"Garsh darn it Arnold, you're lookin' pretty dang snazzy!" Stinky said, giving his friend a thumbs up. "Bet ya're quite popular with the ladies!"

"Actually no, I haven't really dated anyone." Arnold said with a shrug. "I do a lot of traveling and helping out with building things, so I don't always have time for it. No one's really caught my eye, anyway."

But he knew very well why.

"Dang, ya must be one lonely bachelor." Said Stinky.

"Nah, I'm okay."

"So how long are you sticking around, Arnold? For the summer or-OW!" Eugene was asking before he tripped and fell down. "I'm okay!"

Arnold chuckled and helped him up. "I'm not sure, exactly. But I do want to stick around for a long time. I really missed it here."

"We sure missed you, that's for sure!" Sid agreed, nodding with Stinky. "Glad you came back to visit us. We thought you'd forgotten us."

"God no, I could never forget you guys." Arnold said seriously, and then glanced over at Helga.

"Oh Arnold, you must tell me, have you seen any interesting species of spiders lately?!" Nadine asked eagerly. "Oh, I remember...how San Lorenzo had hundreds of species of spiders, and also with the cicadas...oh goodness!"

"I did actually work with an Entomologist with my parents a few months ago in the jungle." Arnold told her, nodding. "In fact, I mentioned you to him, and you can contact him on his website. He was from England, his name's Kurt Harding."

"Oh, wonderful!" Nadine gushed. "Thank you, Arnold! I'll definitely do that!"

"So Arnold, see any hot Central American babes?" Curly crooned, and snaked his arm around Rhonda's waist. "Not that they could measure up to my sweetie pie."

"Yeah, I have met some." Arnold said. "But like I said, I never dated anyone. No one really had me, you know?"

_Take that, sluts!_ Helga thought with a light smirk. At least she had somewhat of a chance, right? Not like he had a hot girlfriend waiting for him back in San Lorenzo at least. At least, she hoped he didn't.

"One thing's for sure, you got one hell of a tan!" Gerald remarked with a grin.

"I have to concur with Gerald. The exposure to the sun must have been well to you, Arnold." Said Phoebe. "You have a very healthy glow."

Arnold smiled and nodded. "Yeah, although tanning's not really my thing. I try to keep my skin protected with sunscreen most of the time."

"Very smart indeed." Phoebe agreed.

Until the wee hours of the evening, the gang all sat around and talked, with Arnold telling them stories about things that had happened in San Lorenzo and on his travels, the places he'd been, the things he saw, the people he met. He promised to bring photos the next time they all got together.

As well, the gang all shared stories about things that had happened over the years, and Helga threw in a few of her own, which made Arnold laugh, much to her delight.

Ah yes, it was great for the whole gang to be back together after so long. They had a great time and made sure to meet up again sometime for a proper welcome-back party.


	3. Hanging Out

**And here we are again! More of the epic journey of...well, love and smex. XD**

**Okay, I bet some of you are wondering how long this is going to be. And to be honest, I'm not exactly sure. There isn't a whole lot to cover, but I also don't want this to be rushed, or jump quickly to the "good stuff" without a good build-up. **

**So, we'll see! Sometimes I like to improvise and see where it takes me. :D**

**Enjoy the story, y'all. You'll be glad to know that there will be a little wee bit of something you'll like in this chapter. ;)**

**Ohhhh, and I should mention that a bit more sexual content occurs here. You have been warned. X3**

**--**

A few days had passed since Arnold had come home to visit Hillwood, and already things were going very well. Miles and Stella joined him a couple of days after he'd arrived so that they could spend time there as well and see his grandparents too. So it was nice to be with his whole family for a change, it really was.

The gang were all off doing their own thing, and promised to be back sometime in the month for a proper party, that Rhonda had offered to organize at her place. By then Arnold had planned to stay in Hillwood at least three weeks at this point. More than enough time, right? He still wasn't completely sure how long, but three weeks was about the set point for the time being. Until he could get a clear decision.

Among that, he was very anxious to hang out one-on-one with Helga. But sadly they both were busy over the past week and only had time to sometimes talk on the phone. Helga too, was anxious to hang out with him and said she'd let him know when she was available, and he said the same thing.

And of course, neither of their hormones, their sexual desires have not at all been subdued.

Hopefully it wouldn't be a problem.

--~~--

One peaceful yet rainy evening, Arnold was just laying on his bed and minding his own business, enjoying the quietness of the night accompanied by the soft patter of the raindrops falling ceaselessly on his skylight. Nothing felt more relaxing than this, that was for sure. A nice, quiet evening listening to the rain.

"Man, I sure missed it here..." Arnold said to himself softly. "Really missed it."

All of a sudden, soft knock came from his bedroom door. Puzzled, he looked and sat up, wondering who could be knocking at this hour. And why? Everyone had to have been asleep by now, didn't they?

Strange.

He got up, turning on a lamp to allow a little light, and went to the door, opening it to reveal quite a surprise.

"H-Helga?" Arnold asked in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"Arnold...I..." Helga blushed a bit. "I really just wanted to see you. I know it's late, but I...couldn't stay away from you any longer."

She was standing on the top step of the stairs, wearing the same brown trench coat she had worn years ago back on the roof of the FTI building when she was in her Deep Voice disguise. Sure it was a little bigger, but the same kind none the less. Why she was wearing that, he didn't know.

"O-Oh. Okay...come on in, come in." He stepped aside to let her in, and shut the door. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine now." She said in a strange tone, turning to face him. "I just can't hold back anymore."

"What do you mean?" Arnold asked, concerned and a little confused.

"Arnold..." Helga slowly undid the belt of her trench coat, opened the folds, and then let it slide down her shoulders and off her body.

Shocked once more, straight down south, Arnold was taken aback by what she'd just done, and also, by what she was wearing beneath the coat. She was wearing a sexy pink lingerie top that barely reached her upper thighs. The lingerie had soft lace along the collar and hem, spaghetti straps, and was accompanied by small pink see-through underpants. It showed a generous amount of her cleavage, and hugged her curves beautifully. Her hair was down in a soft wave down her shoulders and back.

She was beautiful. And so tempting.

"H-Helga? What...are you...?" He managed, feeling his groin stiffening considerably at the sight of her.

"Arnold, I love you..." Helga said, coming to him and bringing her arms around his neck. "I've always loved you, even during our time apart. And I want you, I want you to make love to me, please. Take me, Arnold...take me you sexy piece of man meat!"

The moment her words registered, or tried to, that was all he needed to hear.

Immediately Arnold held her to him in a tight grip and kissed her hungrily, almost savagely, his hands wandering all over her as they looked for a place to hold and grip.

_Finally!!!_ Arnold thought, overjoyed at this. This was it!

Helga kissed him back, her fingers fisting into his hair, and she advanced on him, backing him up to his bed, and they fell onto it. She climbed on top of him, grinding against the painfully obvious bulge in his pants, which in turn made him let out a loud groan.

"A-Arnold....Arnold..." Helga panted, pulling away from him and looking down into his eyes.

"Helga, _God..._ I want you..." Arnold panted out, clutching her tightly.

"Do you love me, Arnold?" The blonde-haired seductress whispered, her hand slipping down his pants and to the bulge. "Do you?" Her other hand slowly unzipped the zipper.

Writhing in pleasure from her touch, he managed to form a coherent answer, to tell her how he truly felt.

"I-I love you, Helga... I love you too, I've always loved you all this time... I'm sorry I didn't tell you...but I love you, and I want you..." He managed, caressing her cheek.

"Oh, Arnold..." Helga cooed, and then smiled. "Hey Arnold."

"H-Huh?"

"Hey Arnold."

Arnold looked at her, bewildered.

"Hey Arnold. Hey Arnold! Hey Arnold!"

--

"Wha?!"

Arnold shot up in bed in cold sweat, panting hard, his eyes darting around as he tried to register where he was and what was happening. His heartbeat slowed to a normal pace, and he took a deep breath. He was in his room, on his bed, it was morning, and his alarm clock was going off. His old, childhood alarm clock. He turned it off, and ran his fingers through his hair in an attempt to make sense of what was happening.

A dream.

It had been a dream.

"It was a dream." He told himself, disappointed, and yet somewhat relieved.

Had his subconscious been trying to tell him something, like before? When he'd been nine he had quite a few dreams that indicated to him that Helga was in love with him, as well as his own repressed feelings. But this was different. He knew he loved Helga, he knew he desired her sexually. So why was his own subconscious bringing that up now? Was it trying to tell him something?

"No, it's definitely just my feelings and desires making up the fantasy of what I want." Arnold sighed. He then looked down at himself, seeing that his PJ bottoms were indeed sporting a painfully obvious bulge.

"Damn it. I need a cold shower now. ...Man, how am I ever going to keep Helga from knowing that her own close friend is lusting for her?"

As he headed to the bathroom, he contemplated what he could do about it.

--

Later on that morning, Helga was not faring any better, either. She too, had woken up from an erotic dream.

"Not again!" Helga groaned, now seeing that she'd now made a mess in her underpants. And not the typical wetting the bed kind, either.

She may have been no stranger to having sexual dreams regarding Arnold, but now upon seeing him again, they had intensified.

"Great, just great." Helga sighed, and yanked her sheets off her bed, tossing them into her laundry hamper sitting next to her closet. "Now Arnold has his own ex-girlfriend/friend lusting after him! How's he going to take to that? Not very well, that's for sure. Not to mention STILL in love with him! What am I doing?!"

Getting out a spare set of sheets from her drawer and tossing them back onto her bed, she opened her underwear drawer and came to find the vibrator she'd stolen from Olga. She felt stupid for using it, and never told anyone, not even Phoebe. She used it when her parents were either sleeping or not around. It was used in her closet, under a blanket.

And she still felt stupid for using it. It did help, somewhat. But it just couldn't replace the real thing she longed for. It was the closest thing she had. She felt stupid for it, but, it was better than going crazy, right? It was all she could do if she wanted to keep it bottled up from him.

"Well, you stupid vibrator...." She said to it, picking it up. "I don't want to have to use you again, but if I don't calm myself down now, I'm going to have to jump Arnold the next time I see him."

No one was home right now, thankfully. Bob and Miriam had driven down to Portland to pick up Olga, since she was there visiting their relatives.

"Oh Arnold....I can't believe I have to resort to this, my flaxen-haired angel." Helga murmured, sitting on her bed as she stared at the vibrator. "But I could never burden you with my passionate lust for you. I've got no choice."

Helga then pressed her thumb over the switch, activating the electronic sex toy. It vibrated in her hand like a cell phone, along with the loud whirring noise it made. Why couldn't these things be quieter?

Tentatively she carefully lowered the item down her underpants, and jolted at the sudden burst of vibrations going up her womanhood. As much as she hated this thing, it did help.

"A-Arnold...." She uttered, letting herself be lost in her fantasies about him.

--

"Well, short man! What's on the agenda for ya today?" Phil asked cheerfully as he was clearing away the dishes with Arnold. Even now in his later 80's, he was still quite a spring chicken! So was Gertie, of course.

"Not sure yet, Grandpa." Arnold shrugged. "I don't have anything else to do, so I'll probably call Helga and see if she doesn't have any plans. I think her parents went out to pick up her sister, so, maybe."

"Ah, the little lady." Phil chuckled. "Think you and her might try and rekindle that ol' romance?"

"Grandpa!" Arnold cried, blushing furiously. "She's my friend. I...I don't even think she sees me that way anymore."

"You'd be surprised, short man." Phil winked. "Hey, Ernie you short buffoon! Come over here and help me! Arnold you go and call your little lady friend, no need to jump into chores! You do too much."

"Oh, fine." Arnold conceded with a smile. "Thanks, Grandpa."

"Anytime, short man!"

"Grandpa, I'm six foot now! I'm not short." But still, he would never get tired of that little nickname. It brought back good times.

Arnold returned upstairs to his room, and went to his phone to call Helga. His heart leaped, remembering his rather erotic dream about her. Yes, he'd had them before, but never this badly. Although, the first time, he had definitely woken up with more than an obvious hard-on.

She finally answered on the fourth ring, and for some reason, she sounded quite breathless.

"H-Hello?"

"Hey, Helga? It's Arnold. ...Are you okay? You sound like you're out of breath."

"Well I..." Pant. "Would be if I had to...er...answer...the phone...as I was...coming back....from...a....a....j-jog, yeah."

"Oh, I see." Arnold nodded to himself, completely oblivious to what was really happening. "So anyway, I wanted to know if maybe you were free sometime today and we could do something together."

"Like...what?"

"Um, I don't know..." He thought a moment. ANYTHING to keep his mind off how much he wanted her. Sure, being next to her certainly wouldn't help matters, but he did want to see her and hang out with her like they would. "Maybe we could see a movie, or go to Dino Land...whatever we feel like doing."

"Okay, sure. Mom and Dad won't be back from picking up Olga until tomorrow afternoon anyway, and Bob's got Jack and Henry covering for him at the store today, plus Pheebs is busy with Geraldo. So, I've got nothing to do. Sounds good. Come pick me up at eleven."

Arnold grinned happily. "All right, I will. Sounds good. I'll see you then, Helga."

"Kay, I'll see you later on then football head. See ya later Ar-" A strange buzzing noise was suddenly heard. "ARNOLD!!!!"

"Helga?! Helga, what happened?! Are you okay?? What's wrong?" Arnold gasped, jumping at the sudden burst of her screaming his name and the strange buzzing noise. "What was that noise!?" He asked, concerned.

The buzzing stopped. "Er...th-that was...sorry...I was...er...flipping through the channels on TV and one of those horror movies about killer rats was on, so I got a little freaked out. And my...er...cell phone went off too, yeah. I was about to say your name, so that's kinda why it all came out like that."

"Oh, okay." Arnold sighed in relief. "Sorry for freaking out like that, it was all pretty unexpected and I got worried."

Helga let out a breathless laugh on the other line. "You worry too much, football head. But that's why I-we all love you, you know. Well I'd best be off, until later then!" Click.

Arnold chuckled to himself. "Doesn't anyone ever say goodbye anymore?"

--

"Thanks a lot, stupid." Helga snarled at the vibrator, batting it against her pillow in an attempt of beating it without actually damaging it. "That's the last time I EVER hold you in my hand while on the phone! Especially with Arnold!"

Of course, she had been lying to Arnold when she said she had yelled out his name like she had. She had not been surfing the channels on TV and came across one of the horror movies about killer rats. Nor did her cell phone go off.

She had just been...well, you know, and then the phone rang, so she stopped it and answered it thinking it was probably important. It was Arnold, the very boy she was just fantasizing about. Thankfully she'd managed to fool him, and had calmed down and caught her breath while she was on the phone with him.

Unfortunately, while distracted in their conversation and thoughts of what they could do together while hanging out today, her hand was clutching the vibrator too tight and her thumb had slipped, hitting the switch, turning it on. And since she had not removed the vibrator from down her underpants-she'd been planning to get back to what she was doing after the phone call was over-, it had of course, caused it to pleasure her to the point of climax.

Thankfully, she'd fooled him about that, too. There was NO way she could actually tell him that she'd just been playing with herself over him.

This was going to be a long day.

~~--~~

"So..."

"So."

"What do you want to do?" They both said in unison.

Arnold and Helga stared at one another as they walked around the quiet streets of Hillwood, looking for something to do. They had now just asked the exact same question at the same time, which made them both laugh. Which was a relief since they'd been walking in silence for the past five minutes.

All the while during their silent walking, they couldn't keep their eyes off each other as they constantly stared when the other wasn't looking.

Helga looked so adorable in a pink tank top with a blue stripe around the middle, matching blue shorts, accompanied by pink sneakers, white socks, and her pink baseball cap. It was hard to keep his eyes off the girl, no, young woman walking next to him.

Helga on the other hand, she too couldn't keep her eyes off her companion. He was dressed so modestly, as always. In a blue and white plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up his forearms, jean shorts, and tennis shoes. He was so cute! It took all of her strength not to hug him like crazy.

At least things were picking up again!

"Well, do you want to go see a movie?" Arnold suggested.

"Yeah, sure. We can go see a movie. What do you want to see?"

"Not sure. I don't quite recall what's out right now." Arnold scratched his head. "Why don't we go down to the theatre, see what's playing, and then we'll pick one from there?"

Helga grinned and straightened her pink baseball cap. "Sounds good to me, then, football head. You buy the tickets, I'll buy the treats."

"All right, that sounds fair." He smiled back at her.

Helga hid her blush as she looked away, an idea coming to her. "Hey! They have a new ride at Dinoland that opened up a month ago! Why don't we go there, too? In fact, let's go way later in the afternoon, closer to evening. That's when it'll be less crowded. Want to do that, Arnold?"

Arnold contemplated that idea, which meant they would likely be spending all day with each other. It was only 11:15, after all.

"Sure, Helga. That sounds like a great idea."

"Good!" Helga smirked and hugged his arm like they were a couple. She was doing it mostly to tease him, and she knew he'd think of it that way, and also, to secretly be close to him and touch him. "Then I guess that means you're all mine for today, football head."

Arnold blushed a little bit, and smiled lightly, while inwardly swooning at their closeness. Sadly, he knew she was just doing it to tease him. But they were once a couple, so it wasn't too foreign to them, even right now.

"Wouldn't have it any other way, hammerhead."

"Glad you see things my way." Helga said, and allowed herself to swoon as she lay her head against him, in pure bliss. "Oh, and Rhonda told me to tell you that she's having the gang over for a party at her place tomorrow night, around seven. She wanted to know of you could make it."

"A party, huh? Well I do have plans in the morning, but I'm free the rest of the day and at night, so yeah, I'll definitely go. It'll be nice to have a fun party with the gang again." Arnold smiled.

"Good! I'm going too, of course. I'll bet she'll make us play all kinds of crazy games like, oh, you know, Truth Or Dare, Seven Minutes In Heaven...."

Arnold blushed at the idea of those games, wondering if Rhonda definitely would make them all do that. She did at their last party, when they had been eleven, which was a going away party Rhonda had organized. But they had played Spin The Bottle and Truth Or Dare. That evening had been both hilarious and embarrassing.

But the best part was that he had been dared to kiss Helga for an entire minute. No problem there.

"You said it, football head." Helga winked at him.

They arrived at the movie theatre, and browsed along the posters advertising what movies were playing.

"So...what do you want to see?" Arnold finally asked.

"Not sure." Helga bit her lip. "Ooh! Look! The new Disney and Pixar movie is out! _Wall-E_. I heard it's supposed to be really good. It's about a robot!"

"Really, huh?" Arnold glanced at the poster of a small, cubed robot with arms, treads, shovel fingers, and a neck, and big optics that looked like big adorable eyes. "He looks kind of cute."

"He's adorable! Okay, it's official, we're watching that." Helga grabbed his hand and dragged him to the ticket window.

"And why?" Arnold teased, smirking. "I didn't think you were into those movies anymore."

"Please. I could never give them up." Helga said. "Besides, you're the only person who would ever understand and watch them with me, football head. Pheebs is also an exception, but you know."

"Now I do." Arnold chuckled, and bought the tickets. "Let's go see it, then. It does look cute. It's funny how they do the name, Wall-E..."

"It's actually his unit name. It stands for Wast Allocation Load Lifter-Earth class. I figured it out myself."

"You're real smart, Pinky."

"Stop calling me Pinky!"

"Never I shall stop."

"Shut up, Yoda."

"Make me."

"I will, monkey face!"

"Screw you."

"When?"

"Helga!"

"What?"

They both laughed as they headed off into the theatre, glad to be having so much fun together again, after so long.

--

**Yes, Wall-E! One of the best movies EVER! As well as one of the most adorable pairings, WALL-E and EVE! :D OwO**

**Enjoy, all. Coming up next is a trip to Dino Land, and Rhonda's party!**


	4. Like Kids Again

**And here we go! Our favourite couple...or not quite couple yet, are soon to be in Dinoland! :D**

**Okay, just one thing. There will be a bit of kissing in this chapter. X3**

**Enjoy!**

**--**

"It's official. I would take WALL-E home with me if I could!" Helga stated, a light pout present on her lips.

"I don't blame you, he's so lovable and cute." Arnold snickered.

"And the sounds he makes! Oh God damn it...I don't know how they did it but WALL-E just reduced me to a pile of mush!" Helga ate some more popcorn. Then again, she felt that way about a certain someone sitting next to her at this present moment. "Gaaaah!!! He's so CUTE!"

"EVE is really lucky, that's for sure. He really loves her, it's so sweet."

"I always thought it was dumb how robots love each other, but damn, WALL-E just proves us wrong! Come on, EVE! He loves you! Can't you see it?! Come on!Don't be so dense!"

They both chuckled a little, and then each reached for some popcorn, with their hands brushing. Looking at one another, they blushed a bit and looked away. So to busy themselves from one another, they paid attention to the movie some more, drinking their Yahoo sodas and eating popcorn, without touching each other's hands.

"Evah...it's so cute how he says her name with an A." Helga remarked.

"Evah!" Arnold imitated in a high, cute little voice.

Helga giggled loudly, trying to stifle it behind her hand. "Arnold! Don't you do that!"

"Why not?" He smirked lightly. "Are you afraid you'll find it too cute, and want to have to take me home, and never set me free?"

"Yes." Helga said honestly.

Arnold snickered. "Sounds good to me." He the noticed her look and grew concerned. "...Helga? Are you okay?"

"Sorry, Arnold." Helga sighed, looking at her lap. "I guess I just kind of realized that you won't be here for very long. I don't know, I'll just miss you, that's all. It's been so long, and then you'll only be here on an extended vacation, and then you'll be gone all over again."

His heart sank, and he just hated to see her this upset. He could tell his absence wasn't easy on her, and he understood. His absence from Hillwood, his friends, and Helga, weren't easy on him either. While he wanted to do the right thing and stay with his parents in San Lorenzo, he just didn't want to leave Hillwood behind again. But he had no choice in the matter, unfortunately. He hated seeing her sad, especially at his expense, most especially when there wasn't much he could do about it in the long run.

Not to mention, it all sabotaged his chances at trying to get get back together with her. Never mind how she felt. He just couldn't put her through a long-distance relationship like that.

Still, he had to find a way to cheer her up.

"Helga. Look at me." Arnold said softly, gently touching her chin, and lifting her face to meet his gaze. "I understand it's not easy for you. Trust me, it's not easy for me either. I don't like being so far away from you guys. I wish San Lorenzo was just a bus ride away from here. But you know what? Let's just enjoy the time we have. We have most if not all the summer, anyway. I'll be here as long as I can, and we'll make the most of it. You, me, and the whole gang. Let's not worry about when I have to leave and how long I'll be gone again. We'll cross that bridge when we get there."

Helga blinked at him, tears in her eyes. His soft touch, his gentle eyes, that sweet tone of voice... She was falling under his spell, big time. So much, that she barely noticed herself moving closer to the edge of her seat toward him.

"Arnold...I..."

Arnold smiled and wiped off a tear from her cheek. "And Helga, I promise you that I will come back here for good. I will always come back here. As I said, Hillwood is and always will be my home. I do love San Lorenzo, and I'll always go back and visit there, but I'm not going to spend the rest of my life there, either. Hillwood is where I want to be. And you're one of my best friends, so I won't let you down. I'm a man of my word."

Their faces were so close together. So close...just a few more centimetres and their lips would finally meet!

Helga smiled, deeply touched by his words, her hormones were going wild. So much so, that she didn't even realize her hand had lifted the armrest between her seat and his up so it would be out of the way.

"I trust you, Arnold...thank you." She managed to say, scooting closer to him.

"You're welcome, buddy girl." He smiled, and then moved closer to her, his eyes now half-lidded.

"Arnold...."

"Yes?"

"Kiss me, Arnold...God, please kiss me." Her eyes closed, her lips puckering slightly.

His heart skipped a beat. Their lips were a fraction of an inch apart, and she was begging for it. Nothing could ruin this now.

"_Put on your Sunday clothes, there's lots of world out there!_"

The two of them jumped apart as if they had been shot, falling back into their seats in a wide-eyed, breathless heap. Just now in the movie, WALL-E had managed to break out of the pen he'd been trapped in while in the Medical Ward of the _Axiom_ and seeing EVE get "tortured", and since he fell down, it caused his tape player to start playing his favourite song from _Hello! Dolly._

"...Let's pretend that didn't happen." Helga finally said with regret.

Though he didn't want to, he gave her a small smile anyway. "Pretending." He squeaked, imitating Phoebe. "It was just...the heat of the moment."

They both managed a laugh at this, and then went back to watching the movie.

--

After the movie was over, at around 1:25, they decided to go get some pizza. Even with the awkward silence that had followed after their near-kiss, they had managed to put it behind them and were friends again, in a matter of speaking. They didn't speak of the incident, even though deep down they wanted to.

So now they sat, eating some pizza, and chatting about the movie.

"Oh MAN! That movie was just awesome!" Helga said, eating her pizza ravenously. "It was awesome."

Arnold chuckled. "You've said that six times since we left the theatre."

"You counted?" Helga looked at him.

"It's not often you gush about good a movie is, hammerhead." He winked at her playfully.

"Oh shut up, Arnoldo." Helga stuck her tongue out at him.

Arnold grinned at her. "Real mature, Helga."

"Har har." Helga rolled her eyes, and then looked around the place. "You know... we haven't been here together since we were...I don't know, ten?"

"Yeah, I think that's about right. I'm just glad it's still here. Hasn't changed a bit." Arnold took in the place. "Except maybe for having to renovate a little, I guess."

"A lot's changed over the past five years, football head." Helga drank some water through her straw. For a fleeting moment Arnold gulped as he watched her do that. "So! What shall we do until we heard off to Dino Land? It's only 1:45 now, we still have all day."

"Want to go fly a kite?" Arnold suggested, unable to keep a straight face.

"Fly a kite?! Arnold, we're not nine!" Helga laughed, clapping her hands over her mouth to stifle herself.

"Come on, Helga. You know you want to." He smirked, leaning across the table toward her.

"Oh yeah?" Helga leaned across the table toward him too, touching her nose to his. "What makes you think that, football head?"

"Because I know you."

"Oh you do, huh?"

"Well, we used to date, didn't we?"

Both of them froze upon saying that, a strange looking coming across their faces, and they sat back in their chairs, now facing away from each other.

"I'm sorry, Helga. I didn't mean to bring that up."

"No no, don't worry. Not like it never happened, it's a true fact." Helga said, and sighed lightly, looking down at her empty plate. "...We had some good times together."

Arnold smiled a little. "Yeah, we did." Maybe this was it! A good time to ask that BIG question.

No, wait.

"Helga?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you, I mean, did you ever date anyone? I mean, we never really talked about it, so I was curious."

"Well...I did kinda date one guy." Helga admitted. "Brainy."

"Brainy?" Arnold looked at her with surprise. A wave of jealousy ran through him. "You did?"

"Yeah." Helga sighed. "It didn't work out. To be honest, as much as I wanted to give him a chance, I was kind of...well, latching onto the fact that someone liked me in that way. I thought maybe...but no. It didn't work out, I ended up breaking up with him because I just couldn't fool myself or him anymore. That was last year, it lasted for two months. I did like some boys here and there, but never enough to date anyone. Other than that, nada. I'm not dating anyone."

_I don't want anyone else. I just want YOU, Arnold._

"I understand." Arnold said. "I never really dated, although back in San Lorenzo, I did start seeing this girl. Her name was Enrica Chavez, and her family was new to the village of the Green-Eyed people. I dated her because..." He gulped, unsure if he should mention that it was because she'd been just like Helga. "Well, I did like her for a while and she was interesting. But it didn't work out. She kind of cheated on me."

"What?! Cheated?!" Helga gasped, looking at him now. "Why?! How could she do such a thing?!" As relieved as she was that he didn't have a babe waiting for him back in San Lorenzo, she was still mad about how someone dared cheat on him like that. She wanted to go down there and toss her into the jungle covered in honey and Tabasco sauce!

"She...um....turned out to be a lesbian." Arnold blushed a bit. "I kind of walked in on her by accident while she was....you know...doing it with this other girl in the village I knew, Catalina Tortiano. She was afraid to tell me about it fearing I'd judge her or do worse. Of course, I was upset at her for cheating on me and not telling me the truth, but I was okay with the fact she was a lesbian. That didn't bother me. After that, although we were friendly with one another, it just wasn't the same. Other than her, I haven't been with anyone."

Helga relaxed a little bit, relieved, though still miffed. "I can see why she did that, but that still doesn't excuse the fact she cheated on you like that. How dare she! You are a gold mine of a guy, Arnold! How could girls do that, lesbian or not?!"

Arnold just shook his head. "I don't know, Helga. Bad things happen to good people, and that really sucks. But don't worry about it, it was two years ago and I'm over it by now."

"So I can't stomp over there and give her a taste of Ol' Betsy?" Helga pouted.

"No, she moved to Venezuela three months ago." Arnold snickered.

"Shit, I had my chance." Helga snapped her fingers. "Whatever, football head."

"Okay, whatevering. If that word even exists." Arnold snickered, and then grew serious. "Actually, Helga, there was something I wanted to ask you."

"What's that?" She drank her water some more, looking at him with big, curious blue eyes.

"Well, um, I've been thinking a lot about this, and if you're up to the idea...but if you're not, i-it's okay! I won't force you into it."

"What, Arnold? Tell me."

He took a deep breath. "Helga, I-"

"Hey, you guys!"

The two looked over to see Lila coming over to them as she came into the pizza parlor. Both of them, though inwardly annoyed at being interrupted, put on a civil front to their friend.

"Hey, Lila." Arnold said.

"Hey." Helga muttered.

"How are you two doing? ...Was I interrupting anything?"

"Yes."

"No!"

Lila looked from Arnold to Helga, confused. "Um...I'm ever so sorry if I did. Do you need me to leave?"

"No no, it's fine." Helga said. "We were just leaving soon, anyway."

"Oh, what are you two up to?"

"We're going to try to pass the time, and then go to Dino Land later." Arnold said.

Lila grinned. "Oh, that sounds ever so cool! It's nice that you two are getting along and hanging out together."

Both of them blushed a bit, but kept their composures.

"Yeah, well, you know." Helga shrugged. "So why are you here?"

"Oh, Stinky and I are having a movie marathon, so I came to pick up some pizza on my way over to his house." Lila giggled.

"That sounds great, Lila." Arnold smiled and nodded. "I hope you guys have fun tonight."

"Oh, thank you, Arnold! Well, I won't keep you guys any longer. I'll see you later! Have an ever so fun time at Dino Land!"

"Oh, we will." Helga winked at her, and then took Arnold's hand. "We will. Now c'mon, football head."

The two of them waved to Lila and then exited the pizza joint.

"So Helga, you still want to go fly that kite?"

"No way! I am not going to fly a kite like I was nine again!"

--

"I can't believe I'm flying a kite like I was nine again!"

The two of them were at the park, having gone back to the boarding house to go get one of Arnold's old childhood kites, which were surprisingly still intact.

Arnold laughed, and took the kite string from her. "C'mon Helga, you wanted something to do until five, so we can do this for a while."

_Frankly, I'd rather we go back to my place and fuck on my bed to pass the time._ Helga thought, shuddering slightly at the idea of that. In a good way.

"Admit it, you're having fun." He smirked at her.

"If I say yes, will you shut it?" Helga sneered.

"Maybe I will, maybe I won't." Arnold said smoothly, and looked back up at the kite.

"You!!" Helga playfully smacked him on the shoulder.

"Careful Helga, if anything happens, this kite will fly away and I'll fly with it!"

"Ooh, then take me with you!" Helga laughed, bringing her arms around his waist. "We'll fly around the world together!"

Arnold laughed heartily and brought one arm around Helga, his other hand holding the kite string. "Sounds good to me, let's go."

Helga giggled and snuggled against him, blushing a bit at their close proximity, but loving it none the less. She could see he didn't mind, so she snuggled a little closer. It felt so nice, being here with him today, having fun just like they did back in the good old days as children in love. Now they were flying a kite, and in a few hours would have some fun at Dino Land. Overall, they were having a great day together.

"Uh, hey, Arnold, you know...um..."

"What's up, Helga?" Arnold looked at her.

Helga blushed a little and looked away. "Thing is, I just wanted to say...I'm having a great time with you today. I'm glad we decided to do this."

Smiling warmly, Arnold brought her closer in a little one-armed hug. "I'm glad you're having fun, Helga. I'm having a great time too. I've really missed spending time with you."

"Yeah, same." Helga agreed with a nod. "Well...you know, I'm still really glad you're back and all."

"I'm glad to be back." Arnold looked at her again, and the wind died down, so he pulled his kite in by the string to bring it down. "Really glad to be back. I'm glad we can spend time together like this again."

The kite came to a drop on the ground in front of them. Helga went over and picked it up, though she didn't want to leave his embrace. But she knew she had to, since her control had been slowly slipping at that point. She inspected the kite for rips or marks, and then handed it to Arnold as he rolled up the string on the holder. He then placed it on the bench near them where his bag sat.

"So Arnoldo, what do you suggest we do now? Roll around in the grass? Or heck, play in the sandbox? Or would you rather we put on bonnets and have a tea party? You know, since you're so into doing kids stuff now." Helga said in playful sarcasm.

"As a matter of fact, I do." Arnold said, and smirked playfully.

"Beg pardon? Would you care to elaborate on that, football-_hey!_"

Arnold had reached up and plucked her pink baseball cap off her head, and held it high above her reach. "Ha ha, I've got your hat, and I'm not giving it back! La la la and I'm so mean and a bully 'cause I stole your hat."

"Give it back!" Helga shouted, but she was smiling. She jumped up and down to try to reach for it.

"No way. I'm getting vibes from it. Hmm, let's see...oh, I know. Whoever owns this hat will one day be famous. In fact, I can just see it now! You're older now, and you walk into a restaurant, and you have this hat on your hat. Only, it isn't just a blank cap. It has something written on it. Wait, it's fuzzy. It says...oh, there we go now. It says 'Taco Bell'."

"That's it. You are so DEAD!"

Helga lunged at him, knocking him down onto the grass nearby, wrestling for her hat. They both laughed and wrestled, rolling around in the grass, looking like a couple of kids. They had not rolled around in the grass together like crazy since they'd been ten. Good times, good times.

"Gimme!"

"Never!"

Finally, Arnold had Helga pinned down below him on the grass, holding down her wrists with her arms outstretched on either side of her in a crucifixion manner, and held the brim of her hat between his teeth.

"Goshya." He said, grinning.

"Okay okay, I give! Uncle! Whatever! Just give me back my hat! Gimme!" Helga pouted.

"Ogay." Arnold unclenched his teeth, letting the hat fall, bouncing off her chest and halfway onto the grass next to her.

For a few moments, he just stared down at her, mesmerized. She looked so cute, so irresistible then. Her pink cheeks, pouty lips, dewey blue eyes that were sparkling with happiness and genuine curiosity, her wisps of blonde hair falling along her face, her pigtails spread out across the ground on either side of her head. And of course, her pink bow, which had been hidden under her hat.

He realized then, the position they were in. She was so close, right there, all his for the taking, if he just did something! His mind wandered back to when they were in the theatre, and they'd been close, and she'd begged him to kiss her. ...Had she meant it? Or was she just recalling their old childhood romance and it was getting to her?

He wasn't sure.

Before he could think, Arnold leaned down toward her, his eyelids lowering slightly. Helga noticed this, and made no attempt to move her head away. He released her wrists, and then, leaning closer, it happened.

Their lips met, melding together after so long.

_FINALLY!!!!_ Helga inwardly cheered happily. The very lips she had been craving the past five years were now finally back where they belonged, on her lips. For a brief moment she thought back to the last time they'd kissed. They had been eleven, and he had visited for the first time from San Lorenzo, and stayed for a week. Before he got on the plane, they shared what was definitely the longest kiss they'd ever had, lasting four minutes.

She brought her arms around his neck, desperately pulling him closer as she kissed him back. Arnold relished her lips, and at her response, glad to see that she wasn't pushing him away. His hormones were going crazy, and he would have taken her right there if they weren't in public. Then again, he was almost ready to. So was she.

When he suddenly realized what he was doing, he pulled back, looking down at her with shock and apology. Helga realized he must have not quite known she wanted this.

"A-Arnold...?"

"Helga, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to, I-"

"Arnold? Helga?"

The two snapped their gazes to the voice that interrupted them, coming to see Gerald and Phoebe standing nearby, looking at them with shock and mild confusion. Immediately, Arnold stood right up and helped Helga to her feet, both of them blushing like crazy.

"Heat of the moment?" Helga whispered.

"Yeah...sure." Arnold whispered back. He then went over to their best friends, with Helga following. "Hey Gerald, Phoebe. What's up?"

"You mind tellin' me what was going on there?" Gerald said, still a little weirded out.

"Nothing you need to know, Geraldo." Helga said, placing her cap back on. "We were just playing around like a couple of kids."

"Oh, I see." Phoebe giggled. "So, what are you two up to today? Gerald and I are going to hang out with Jamie-O and his wife over at the record store and then we're all going out tonight for dinner at Chez Pierre."

"Well, Pheebs! That should be mighty interesting." Helga's eyes twinkled with mischief, making the petite girl blush. "Football head and I were trying to pass the time for now. We're going to Dino Land tonight."

"Ooooh, fun!" Gerald grinned, slapping his best friend playfully on the back. "Good for you, man."

"Thanks, I guess." Arnold chuckled. "You guys are going to Rhonda's party tomorrow night, right?"

"Damn right!" Gerald gave a thumbs up. "It's gonna be great for the whole gang to be back together for a fun party!"

"As long as no alcohol is involved." Phoebe said softly.

Gerald smiled and kissed her sweetly on the cheek, making her blush. "Don't worry babe, I'll make sure not a drop of alcohol touches your lips, or mine."

"Thank you, honey." She said, and hugged him.

"Awwww...." Helga smiled, and giggled.

Arnold smiled, nodding in agreement with her. Gerald and Phoebe had been together since they were nine, and even today were still going on very strong. And were just such a cute couple, and loved each other very much. Rumours went around with their friends that they were engaged, though they denied it.

"Sorry, can't help getting all lovey dovey!" Gerald snickered, and they all laughed. "Well anyway, we're off now! See you guys tomorrow! I'll call you tonight, okay Arnold?"

"Got it." Arnold nodded. "See you tomorrow!"

"Bye bye, Helga! Have a nice time at Dino Land!"

"Will do, Pheebs! See ya!"

"Seeing!" Phoebe giggled, and walked off with Gerald, hand-in-hand.

Helga laughed, slapping Arnold on the arm. "Ah, isn't Phoebe the cutest?"

"She is." Arnold smiled. "Gerald is a really lucky guy to have a great girl like her. He really loves her very much."

"He sure does! And he better, or else he'll hear from Ol' Betsy!"

"Whatever you say, Helga."

--~~--

"Hey Arnold, did you know that the Southern Swamp, Snowhead Mountain, and Great Bay all have the same melody?"

"Do they?" Arnold looked over at Helga as they pulled up to Dino Land.

They'd decided to drive, and since Helga had her license, she drove them in his Grandfather's Packard. Plus, she drove it before. To pass the time earlier, they'd gone back to the boarding house and played video games, mostly _The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask_, helped Gertie make dinner, and then by around 5:30, they were off to Dino Land.

"Yeah! You didn't notice while we were playing?" Helga said, parking in a space and then killing the engine. "Okay, sure, they're composed and played out differently, but it's the same rhythm!"

"Wow, I did not know that." Arnold unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the car. "You sure kicked butt today, I hadn't played video games in years, so I was pretty rusty."

"Oh Arnold, how did you live?" Helga giggled.

"Hand-held portable video games." Arnold winked.

"Cheater! You damn cheater! Just for that, you're carrying me! Piggyback!" Helga laughed and then climbed onto his back. "Now, onward!" She pointed ahead to the main gates.

Arnold laughed heartily, looping his arms around her legs to keep her steady. "All right, hammerhead." He smiled at the nostalgia of when he had carried her back in the fourth grade when she was "blind". It was harder to do back then since she was taller than he was at the time, but now, it was no problem.

"You better hang tight, Spidermonkey!"

"Oh no you didn't just quote that God-awful piece of crap _Twilight_!"

They both laughed and then headed to the entrance of the amusement park, paid to get in, and then off they went.

"So, what do you want to do first?" Helga asked, getting down from his back.

"Well, we did just eat, so I think we should stick to some of the easier rides and some games so we can digest and not end up puking." Arnold said, looking around for something to do.

"So then you won't object to a fun round of bumper cars?" Helga smirked.

Arnold smirked back. "Why no, of course not. I'd been meaning to get a fair rematch out of you from last time."

"Race you!"

"Hey!"

Over the next hour, they played on the bumper cars, took turns seeing who could whack the most moles in Whack-A-Mole, tossing a baseball at some stacked up plastic bottles, and then had a little fun on the carousel.

Afterward, they went to the big one, the roller coaster.

"Didn't you and Eugene get stuck at the top of the roller coaster course back in fourth grade?" Helga recalled as they went to get in line.

"Oh yeah, I nearly forgot about that." Arnold realized, and laughed a little. "We sang Itsy-Bitsy Spider to try to pass the time, and Eugene felt so bad for being a jinx and messing it up. But it wasn't his fault, we were just stuck. Then the repair guy had come up, got a little scared, and joined us in the car, and we all sat there still singing Itsy Bitsy Spider to cheer ourselves up."

"It must've been quite a ride!" Helga remarked, giggling. "If it'd been me, I think I would have taken the opportunity to snuggle into you and cling to you as I would cry 'We're gonna die!' like a maniac. And no one would be any the wiser because no one would see us up there and you would just assume I was too scared."

"Probably. Or I would've assumed you had an ulterior motive." Arnold winked, snaking his arm around her waist. "And then after you'd make me swear not to tell anyone, that you were holding on to me because you were scared and nothing more, and I would've just given you a knowing smile and said 'Whatever you say, Helga'."

"I guess I really couldn't fool you sometimes, huh?" Helga smirked up at him, and inwardly swooned at their closeness.

"I wasn't always dense." Arnold winked. "I always did think there was something behind those times you jumped into my arms when you were scared."

Helga laughed at the memories of that. "Oh jeez! You had to bring that up! And, well, you didn't drop me, you know."

"Of course not. You were scared, and I was too, so I wasn't going to turn my back on you like that."

"Oh shut up! Well, our ride's here! Shall we?"

"Of course."

They got into the car in the third row, sitting side by side, gripping onto the safety bar.

"You know, they should really call these things a 'Hold On To This Or You're Gonna Die' bar!" Helga remarked with a grin.

Arnold laughed at that. "Helga! That'd be something scary for the kids who try to ride this thing!"

"Hey, it'd be true." Helga winked. "And who's to say this isn't scary enough without a giving the safety bar a more true and scary name?"

"Whatever you say, Helga." Arnold smiled, and winked back at her. "So let's hold on tight to the hold onto this or you're gonna die bar then."

Helga laughed heartily next to him, and then fixed her hat straight before the roller coaster started to move.

Forward they went, and then up, up, up...

"You ready for this?"

"I was born ready."

The roller coaster then zoomed down the slope at breakneck speed, with all the passengers screaming in joy or in fright. Helga threw her arms up in a joyous squeal, and like Arnold's own hat, hers stayed perfectly in place. They laughed and screamed the entire ride, and even at one point held their hands upward for the fun of it, to see what would happen.

Afterward, they rode it two more times, and then disembarked, feeling a little shaky and disoriented, but having had a ton of fun.

"Whoa! That was radical!" Helga said, leaning up against a wall for support.

"It was." Arnold agreed, leaning against the wall with her. "So, what do you want to do next?"

"Hmmm....ooh! I know! You know that new ride I told you about? It's called the Anti Gravity Chamber Space Travel! It's this big room, that has zero gravity, you float around, and it has all these satellite images of space! The moon, some other planets, the milky way, it's beautiful, Arnold. It makes you feel like you're really floating around in space! You have GOT to try it!"

"Wow, that sounds amazing." Arnold said, intrigued by the idea. "But how do you get down?"

"The walls are magnetic, and on the ceiling are these nano boots with built in steel. You put them on, and then you can walk down the walls and onto the floor and then be able to exit no problem." Helga explained. "You're going to love it, Arnold! It'll be like we're flying! And through space!"

Arnold grinned and took her hand. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

They went off toward the other end of the park, coming to a large, tall building next to an enormous dome. Helga explained that the dome was the Anti Gravity chamber, where it all took place. Going inside, they received instructions from the man who was running the ride as they stood in line. People could go in up to four at a time, and were allowed about ten minutes. Along with that, they would get a souvenir photo on their way out.

By Arnold and Helga's turn, the man opened the large chamber door that resembled the door to a safe at the bank. They stepped inside the room, holding each other's hand subconsciously. The minute they stepped into the room, they went right up into the air! Not very fast, but enough to get them off the floor and high up.

"Whoa!" Arnold exclaimed, and grinned widely as they floated around the large dome.

As Helga said, the walls and ceiling consisted of amazing photographs of the stars and planets of space, with fibreoptic lights, and a blacklight. It was amazing.

"Helga, this is so amazing! Wow!"

"I told you so! Isn't it awesome, to be floating around all weightless?" Helga said, and went into a lounging position, crossing her legs and bringing her hands behind her head. "This is the life, football head!"

"Wow..." Was all he could say. He did a few frontal flips, flew up higher like a bird as he flapped his arms, and then flew downward, and then back up again. "Wow!"

"I guess now you really are a bird!" Helga laughed. "You remember that time I glued feathers to your butt?"

Arnold snickered. "How could I forget? You called me a bird and I got so mad that time that I actually threw paint on you after you got some on me."

"Oopsie. Sorry." Helga smirked, not to the least bit sorry.

"Okay, that's it, I'm gonna getcha." Arnold smirked and floated toward her.

"Oh noes!" Helga laughed, and floated away.

The two laughed and chased each other around the dome, feeling like a couple of kids again. It was amazing, having so much fun like this, and floating around in a giant dome that looked like it were space itself. The weightlessness they felt in the zero gravity felt absolutely amazing and exhilarating, it was as if they were flying. It was like some kind of freedom they'd never felt before.

Eventually, they came to each other and held each others hands as they were floating on their stomachs, going toward the ceiling. They smiled, looking into each other's eyes.

"So, you having fun, football head?"

"I haven't had this much fun in a long time, Helga. I'm having a great time with you today."

Helga blushed a bit and smiled sweetly. "Me too. I'm glad we came here."

"So am I." Arnold smiled back at her more, interlacing his fingers with hers. "I'm glad we can finally hang out together, just like the old days. I've really missed all that."

"And you know I have too! Least now we can make the best fun we can."

Arnold nodded, and then let go of their hands as they reached the ceiling. A few pairs of the magnetic boots were stuck to there. So they floated upside down in order to get their feet into them. And then, holding hands again, they walked down the space walls of the dome, and came back down to the bottom. Because of the zero gravity, they had to take off their hats beforehand, but it was comical since Helga's pigtails were floating upward as they trekked across the floor.

Once out, they took off the boots, and tossed them back inside, letting them fly up to the ceiling. The man running the ride gave them their hats and a souvenir photo of them, and they headed outside.

"We are SO going on that again next time!" Helga grinned, putting her hat back on. "So what's the photo like?"

Arnold studied the photo and held it out for her to see. It was caught at the moment that their hands were intertwined and they were smiling at each other, looking more like they were a couple in love than two buddies having fun. Oh well.

"It's pretty nice." Arnold smiled, and haded her one copy while he kept the other.

"It is." Helga agreed. "I'll stash this with my photobooth photos!"

"You still have those?" Arnold asked, amazed.

"Of course, silly! Do you?"

"Well of course I do." He smiled. "I kept everything from the things we did together. They're all in a box that I keep with me."

Beaming, she gripped his hand and squeezed. "Guess I'm not the only one who did, then."

They went to get some cotton candy, played a few more games, and then went on a particular ride they hadn't been on in a while. The Ferris Wheel.

"It's been a while since we went on the Ferris Wheel." Arnold mused as they sat in their enclosure while the ride was still being loaded.

"I know." Helga agreed. "To be honest, I haven't been on this thing since our last day here."

"You haven't?"

"No. I guess I got used to riding it with you and it felt weird to do it myself." Helga admitted, looking down at her lap.

Arnold looked at her with a sympathetic expression. He could see his absence had been hard on her, probably harder on her than it had been for him, for sure. He of course was once again reminded that this was just an extended visit, making him want to sigh, but he held it back.

Instead, he carefully crossed over to sit beside her, bringing an arm around her. She was surprised at this, but snuggled into his embrace, fighting back tears.

"Are you okay, Helga?"

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry, I got a little...well, you know. Emotional there."

"It's okay, I understand." Arnold soothed, taking in the scent of her hair, and the soft feel of her hat. "I'm sorry it's been hard on you, Helga."

"Not your fault, football head." Helga managed, and looked up at him. "I-I don't blame you...for it."

Reality had set in, making them both realize how close they were together, so close. In a rush of heat and passion, they leaned in and kissed each other for the second time that day. It was chaste, soft, and sweet. As much as they wanted to deepen it, they dared not, figuring it would scare the other one off and create an awkward situation between them.

A few moments passed, and they finally pulled away after nearly half a minute, reluctantly. Their secrets were just edging to be told, but no, they dared not say those words, either.

"...Sorry." Arnold let go and looked away from her. "I got carried away."

"Don't worry about it. Come on, it's not like we haven't kissed before, you know." Helga said, trying to lighten the mood.

Arnold chuckled a little. "I guess you're right."

"Yeah." Helga rubbed her arm a little. "...So, after this is over, you want to head home and call it a night?"

"Sure." Arnold nodded, and gave her a smile.

She smiled in return, and they subconsciously held hands again, each looking out their respective windows on either side of them.

--

Later on that evening, after dropping the Packard off at the Sunset Arms, Arnold walked Helga home, where they made small talk along the way.

Once upon her stoop, they felt the awkward silence again.

"Um...so, see you tomorrow for Rhonda's party?" Helga finally said.

Arnold nodded and smiled. "Yep. I'll see you there."

"Okay. Well....night, Arnold. I had a great time today." She smiled at him with so much love.

Her loving smile was returned. "I did too, Helga. We'll have to do this more often. Goodnight...for now."

Another silence befell them, as if frozen in time, since neither of them moved, their eyes darting around nervously, until green met blue. Before either of them could stop themselves, they leaned in and kissed again. They stayed frozen like this for a few seconds, and then pulled back.

"...See you tomorrow."

"Yeah, tomorrow."

Helga went inside the house, and Arnold descended the steps, the night closed in all around, and for a few moments he stared at the front door.

"...I love you, Helga." He said softly to himself, and then walked off down the street.

Inside the house, Helga had gone up to her room, where she collapsed onto her bed, her heart pounding vigorously.

"I love you, Arnold...."


	5. Heat of the Moment

**Okay, I guess some of you are desperately wondering when these two are ever going to do it. XD I don't blame you! Arnold and Helga are of course, wondering the same thing!**

**Well, since you guys have been such a great audience, and we know it's going to happen anyway, it'll happen in chapter six. The story will be done by the 7****th**** or 8****th**** chapter.**

**So, enjoy! :D It is now time for Rhonda's party!**

**And oh, a big inspiration shout out to rockyyy, from chapter 9 of her fanfic "We were merely Freshmen". There will be some elements in here that was inspired by her. XD**

**--**

"So how's this? This okay?"

Helga stepped out of her closet, in her little ensemble for the evening. A pink tube top, magenta short-sleeved jacket, denim capris, and flip flops. She also wore her bow around her neck as a choker.

Phoebe smiled and gave her a thumbs up. "It's cute, Helga! I like it, the colours are really nice together." She was dressed in a blue t-shirt, jeans, and a black vest.

"Yeah...I guess I do look okay." Helga looked at herself in the mirror, giving a light nod. "...Hey Pheebs, can I talk to you about something?"

"Of course you can, Helga." Phoebe smiled, and glanced at her watch. "We still have a half an hour before we have to get to the party, so we have time. What's on your mind?"

"Well, I..." Helga sat down on her bed. "You know this already, I'm in love with Arnold."

Phoebe smiled, nodding. She knew. She knew since preschool, but just never spoke of it to her or told anyone.

"I do, Helga. What's the problem?"

"Well, you know, with him being back after so long, I guess you can say it's all been getting to me. ...I want to...get back together with him." Helga confessed, looking down at her lap with forlorn. "But the thing is, I know he has to leave soon and all, not sure when, he doesn't even know, but I just...I want to be with him again. I want to be able to say I love him right to his face. I want to cuddle with him, kiss him, and...okay, what I am about to say must NOT be repeated under any circumstance whatsoever."

"What, Helga?" Phoebe asked, genuinely curious.

"........I've been having these.........well......urges, lately."

"Urges? What do you mean? Or do you mean...oh..."

"Yeah." Helga confirmed, bright red in the cheeks. "I want to have sex with him."

"Oh!" Phoebe jumped in her chair, her little eyes wide with surprise, her cheeks bright red as she covered her mouth. She wasn't disgusted, just surprised. Well, not surprised, she knew Helga, but she was surprised she'd said it out loud, confirming what she was suspecting, in plain words. "Gosh, Helga... I'm so sorry."

"Thanks Pheebs." Helga sighed again. "I want him so bad! But I...I can't do that to him! I can't tie him down here, he has a life in San Lorenzo now! I just couldn't do that to him! I want to be with him, I want to be his girlfriend again, I want to make love with him...I want him back, all of him, Pheebs." Tears rolled down her cheeks by now. "I love him, Pheebs...I love him, I love him so much. I want him back. But...I can't do that to him. I just can't! What if he meets someone else in San Lorenzo and DOES end up falling for her and want to get married? He won't be able to because he'll have ME to break up with! I don't want him to have to worry about his future because of me!"

"Helga..." Phoebe rose from her chair and sat next to her on her bed, hugging her. "It's okay to feel this way. I can understand that you want him back, that is nothing to be ashamed of, I promise you. And I can see why you're worried about all of this because of the fact he's just here on an extended visit. If you don't mind my asking, what happened between you two yesterday? Did you get any hints about how he feels?"

"I can't say for sure how he feels." Helga replied, hugging her back. "We just hung out all day, we got close a lot, and...we...we kissed three times."

"Did he kiss you, or did you kiss him?"

"The first time, he kissed me. The second time, we both went for it. The third time, he kissed me. They never lasted very long, and they weren't deep, either. We just pretended they never happened, saying it was in the heat of the moment. I-I wanted to tell him I loved him, but I just couldn't. I'm scared of how he feels, Pheebs. Plus, I hardly think it's reassuring that I'm lusting after him like crazy."

"You can't help how you feel." Phoebe said gently. "By what you're telling me, I think he might have repressed feelings for you too. The fact he's kissed you kind of indicates that."

"...I wish, Pheebs. But I really don't know for sure." Helga moaned. "I need him, Pheebs...I need him so bad."

"I understand, Helga. I think...I think you two need to have a good long talk about all of this, about how you both feel. And then, just let your heart decide, and go for it." Phoebe told her. "Okay?"

Helga gave a meek nod. "Okay, Phoebe. I will."

Phoebe smiled and patted her on the back. "Good. Now then, why don't we get you some makeup, and then we'll head off to the party?"

"Sounds good to me, Pheebs."

--~~--

"Mmm mmm mmm! You look sharp, man." Gerald said, giving his best friend a thumbs up.

"You think so, Gerald?" Arnold said, and looked at himself in the mirror. A white long-sleeved shirt underneath a blue t-shirt, black trousers, and tennis shoes. He looked pretty good, pretty casual.

"You bet I do, dude." Gerald winked at him. He was dressed in an old design sweater, which was red with 33 written on it in white letters, and jeans along with sandals. He had also gotten a haircut, finally, but still kept his afro hair somewhat tall. "Now all right man, what's goin' on?"

"Huh? What do you mean?" Arnold turned around to face him.

"Somethin' is troubling you, man. I can tell." Gerald told him, sitting on his couch. "So what's wrong?"

Arnold heaved a sigh, seeing that he just couldn't hide anything from his best friend. So he sat down on the couch next to him, deciding to just come out with it. After all, he was looking for someone to talk to about it.

"Well Gerald, I think you might already know this, but...well, I'm still in love with Helga." Arnold admitted.

Gerald raised his eyebrows. Somehow, he expected it, and yet, he couldn't believe it. "I guess I should've known! I'd seen all those looks you send her way since you got back here."

"Was it that obvious?"

"Pretty much."

Arnold sighed, shaking his head as he palmed his face. "I want to get back with her, Gerald. I really do. Only problem is, I don't know how long I'm going to be here. If we got back together, only for me to leave again, that wouldn't be fair to her. I don't want to put her through that. I don't want us to be in love and separated for who-knows-how-long."

"Ohhhhh." Gerald said, nodding in understanding. "I see what you're sayin', man."

"I love her, Gerald. I love her so much. I'd give anything to be with her, but I just can't put her through being away from me for so long. I just can't. I want to make her happy, and I want her to BE happy." Arnold said, his tone dropping. "And lately, the fact I want her so bad isn't helping."

"Wait, what? Dude, are you sayin'..."

"Yeah, Gerald." Arnold nodded, looking away, red in the cheeks.

"Whoa." Gerald's eyes widened. "You have it real bad, man."

"That's just it! And I don't know what I can do!" Arnold cried, and stood up from the couch, pacing a little. "And I don't know how she feels, or if she'd even want to get back together. I would never ever force her, but still. All this uncertainty is killing me. Plus, how is she going to feel knowing that I'm lusting after her like a tiger over a piece of raw meat?!"

"Whoa whoa man, calm down!" Gerald stood up and placed his hands on his friend's shoulders. "You guys are sixteen now, not nine! You need to sit down with her and talk about all this, see how you guys feel and what you're willin' to do! Okay? So calm down and stop goin' crazy, we'll go have fun at the party, and whenever you can, talk with Helga."

Taking a few deep breaths, Arnold managed to calm himself, and he nodded.

"You're right, Gerald. That's what we should do."

"Good to know, man." Gerald grinned. "So hey, you mind tellin' me what happened between you guys yesterday? You know, like when we saw you guys in that rather...compromising position at the park?"

"Well, other than having so much fun together like we did..." The blonde boy glanced at the photo of them from their anti gravity chamber adventure sitting on his desk. "...We did end up kissing three times."

"Three times?! You guys kissed THREE times?!" Gerald exclaimed in surprise. "Where did that come from?!"

"Even I don't know, Gerald." Arnold admitted. "It was always such a rush of emotions. It never went further, and they didn't last long."

"Uh-huh...well I see your dilemma there, man. How did she take to them?"

"She went along with them, but then after, we always just pretended it was just the heat of the moment. But I don't want to pretend like they never happened."

"Uh-huh...well, maybe it's time you guys kissed for real. In fact man, if you wanna find out her feelings for you, you need to initiate a smooch! A real good one, too!"

"I can't do that to her, Gerald! What if she doesn't feel the same way?"

"Never thought I'd say THIS for THAT reason, but...this is Helga G. Pataki we're talkin' about." Gerald told him.

Arnold blinked, realizing what he was saying. He gave a shaky grin. "I guess you're right."

"So why don't we mosey on to the party and have ourselves a good time?" Gerald grinned, changing the subject.

Arnold grinned back. "Sounds good to me. Let's go."

--~~--

The party was on!

Everyone was enjoying themselves as they all hung around on the main floor and out on the balcony off the living room. Since it was just the whole gang, no one had spiked the punch, and although Rhonda didn't like that anyone drank illegally, did provide some various fruit-flavoured Vodka.

In all, it was great for the whole gang to be back together.

"Hey Arnold! Did you see some great animals during your jungle expeditions?" Curly inquired.

Curly had mellowed out over the years, and although was still passionate about freeing the animals from the zoo, was a lot more calm and more charismatic about things rather than insane and creepy. He did still love Rhonda dearly, but he showed it in less creepy ways, which Rhonda appreciated, and had eventually found love in.

"Oh, did I not mention those?" Arnold said. "But yeah, a lot of times I saw some tigers, panthers, and oh, I was on this one expedition with my parents, and we found a herd of Anacondas in a mating circle!"

"Ohhhh! Nice! Like in that movie, _Anacondas: The Hunt For The Blood Orchid_! Oh yeah!" Curly pumped a fist in the air. "So you made it out alive?"

"Yeah, my parents are experts in being elusive from wild animals." Arnold nodded and thought for a moment. "Oh, and two years ago, we found an abandoned baby tiger cub. Its mother had been shot by poachers, and it was left all alone. So we took it back to camp with us and we nursed it back to health. It was a girl, and we gave her a name."

"Oh, and what was the name?" Helga asked, overhearing.

Arnold smiled. "Helga. I named her Helga."

"Huh!?" Helga nearly choked on her punch. "Are you...are you serious!?"

Arnold laughed a little bit. "I'm serious, Helga. I named the tiger after you."

"But...but why?"

"Why did you?" Sheena asked, also curious.

"Yeah! I want to know too." Curly said, lifting his glassed off his eyes.

"Me too!" Gerald chimed in.

"I named her Helga, because helping the cub out at the time kind reminded me of ...well, you know, of her." Arnold admitted, blushing a little. "Plus, I wanted to do that in honour of her, since she did so much, not just for me, but for you guys and my family. So, I named the tiger we found after her. She's two years old now, and we had a tiger expert from Borneo come in and help to train her. Now she's a guard tiger in the Green-Eyed village, and she's doing great. I brought some pictures, so we can take a look at them later."

Although a little embarrassed, Helga was so touched at what he'd done. He had rescued a Tiger, nursed it, raised it, made use of it, AND named it after her. She resisted the urge to hug him, but instead shot him a smile and held back her tears.

"Awwwww...." Sheena murmured.

"That's real sweet, man!" Gerald grinned.

"That was awesome of you, Arnold! I'd have done the same, only I would've named that beautiful creature Rhonda!" Curly declared.

Rhonda blushed. "Oh Thaddeus, you're too much sometimes."

"Only for you, babe." He smiled, taking her hand and squeezing it affectionately.

"Oh Arnold, that was just ever so sweet of you to do." Lila said. "Helga really deserves to be recognized for what she's done."

"I agree." Said Phoebe, smiling big.

"Well I wanted to, and it was a perfect name for her." Arnold grinned, and then went to go get more punch, and whispered into Helga's ear, "And plus, I was missing you like crazy." He winked and then went to the punch table.

Helga blushed all the more and nearly fainted from such an overload of love and emotion, maybe, just maybe, he felt the same way!

She had to find out.

"Boy howdy Arnold, who's that pretty girl in the picture?"

"Sid! You have a girlfriend!"

"Shut up, man!"

Arnold laughed and looked at the picture Sid was mentioning. "Oh, that's just Alexandria De Lanore, she's an Archaeologist from New York, and she was coming down to study the artifacts and fossils that the Green-Eyed people have."

"Nice..." Sid drawled, and Stinky hit him slightly over the head.

"Gosh Arnold, it's been so long since we've been in the jungles of San Lorenzo, it was quite an adventure..." Lila remarked, looking at a couple of photos.

"No kiddin' man, seems like it was just yesterday!" Gerald agreed. "You guys remember when Eugene nearly got eaten by those Piranhas?!"

Everyone laughed heartily at the memory, and although embarrassed, Eugene laughed a little bit too.

"It was so cool!" Harold exclaimed. "Ah man, those were some crazy times."

"Can't agree more, fellars." Said Stinky, nodding. "Been a mighty long time since then..."

"Oh, but it was just amazing!" Nadine gushed. "Especially since San Lorenzo had over 200 species of spiders!"

"Oh God, no, I just HATED the jungle!" Rhonda muttered. "None of my technology worked and I got my favourite outfit dirty!"

"You did well though, my love." Curly soothed, rubbing her back. "Are you STILL sure you don't want to go backpacking across Africa after graduation?"

Rhonda sighed, giving him a rueful smile. "I'm sorry, Curly. I'm still sure."

"Hey man, look at this one!" Gerald plucked up another photo. "Wow Arnold, I can't believe you kept this one!"

"Give me that!" Arnold blushed in embarrassment, reaching for the photo. He'd accidentally brought it with him.

Gerald laughed and held it up for everyone to see. It was taken back when they had been ten years old, and were on the plane going back to Hillwood from San Lorenzo. Arnold was sitting with Helga, and they were both asleep holding hands and leaning against each other.

"Awwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!" Everyone chorused as they eyed the picture.

Both Arnold and Helga blushed a bit, embarrassed, and yet were hit with the wave of nostalgia as they took in the shot. They'd gone to San Lorenzo as classmates with an unsure relationship masked by the way things used to be, and came back to Hillwood in love, and things were never the same between them.

It was in San Lorenzo that Arnold realized he loved her too, and that they were meant for each other. It was also in San Lorenzo that they had their first real kiss.

Deep down, they were always grateful for that fated trip.

Looking back, it nearly made them cry at the memory.

Phoebe, noticing their discomfort, then spoke up. "Why don't we go down to the basement and play some games?"

"Oh Phoebe, you always did have the greatest ideas!" Rhonda praised, and then held her hands up for attention. "All right everyone, we are now off to the basement for some games! Who's up for a game of Truth or Dare?"

Uh-oh.

--~~--

Before long, everyone was downstairs sitting in a circle, with an empty glass bottle sitting in the middle on its side. Along with that, sitting nearby, was a lie detector that Rhonda's father was keeping for the week. So when someone picked truth, they had to hook up to it to keep from lying.

"Since it's my party, I of course, shall do the honours of spinning first." Said Rhonda, and she spun the bottle.

It landed on Gerald.

"All right Gerald, truth or dare?"

"Gimme your best shot! Dare." Gerald said bravely, grinning.

"Okay then! I dare you to allow Nadine and I to shave your head!"

Gerald's grin immediately dropped. "What?! No! No way! Don't cut my hair!"

Phoebe patted her boyfriend on the arm in sympathy, while Rhonda and Nadine dashed upstairs, and came back with a razor.

"Sorry Gerald, but it has to be done. Daddy promised he'd donate some hair to Locks of Love, but I sure as hell would never cut my hair."

Everyone watched in awe and laughter as Nadine and Rhonda both took turns shaving his head, with poor Gerald trying to keep cool, but looking like a child that had gotten his candy taken away from him. Arnold tried not laugh, and yet felt pretty bad for his best friend then.

"There we go, all done!" Rhonda said, and handed him a mirror.

Gerald looked at his reflection sadly, feeling along his now bald head.

"At least we know now that his HEAD wasn't tall!" Helga hooted, laughing. "Nah, I'm just kidding. It looks all right, Geraldo."

Sighing, Gerald just sat back without a word, while Phoebe snuggled into him to offer comfort, which made him smile a little more. He then took the bottle and spun it.

It landed on Stinky.

"Truth or dare, man?"

"I'll be takin' truth this time." Stinky said.

Rhonda immediately hooked him up to the lie detector.

"Okay..." Gerald thought for a moment. "Was it really true that you once actually liked Helga?"

Stinky let out a nervous laugh, Helga palmed her face in embarrassment, and Arnold snickered slightly at the memory of when Stinky had told him that he had a crush on Helga, and he had reacted in such shock, climbing up the swing.

"Why yes I did." Stinky said, laughing at the memory. "Some crazy times! But nah, I got over it soon as I started datin' that girl Gloria."

"Wow Stinky, you never told me that!" Lila laughed.

"Sorry dearie." Stinky apologized, kissing her on the cheek.

"No, we're NOT getting back together, Stinko!" Helga teased, laughing too.

"Oh boo hoo." Stinky feigned sadness. "Come on, we all know now that you was tryin' to make Arnold jealous!"

Everyone laughed and Helga turned bright red, twiddling her fingers nervously. Arnold just chuckled and gave her a knowing smile, winking at her. She blushed more and looked away from him.

"Come on now, that was in the past, let's move on." Said Phoebe. "Stinky, I believe it's your turn."

Stinky spun the bottle, which then landed on Rhonda. "Truth or Dare, Miss Rhonda?"

"Truth, please." Rhonda said, now hooking herself to the lie detector.

"Were them rumours true about you an' Curly been doin' it?"

"WHAT?!"

"HUH!?"

Everyone stared at the couple in shock, while Rhonda was blushing as red as her shirt and shaking her head, while Curly played with his glasses mumbling "I wish" to himself.

"No. No, Thaddeus and I have not slept together."

"I wish." Curly muttered again.

"Okey-dokey." Stinky said amiably.

Rhonda unhooked herself to the lie detector, and spun the bottle. It landed on Helga. "Ooohh...well well! Okay, truth or dare?"

"Dare. Bring it on, Rhondaloid." Helga smirked.

Rhonda smirked back. "I dare you to kiss Arnold on the lips."

"Huh!?!?" Helga went red in the face again, making everyone snicker. "W-Wait! What!?"

"Oh come off it, you two used to date before, right? I'm sure you two are no stranger to kissing each other. And might I remind you, the fourth grade? School play? Romeo and Juliet? Or even at my party when we were eleven?"

Everyone giggled, making Arnold and Helga blush again as they nervously looked at each other. They'd rarely kissed in front of their friends while they were dating at the time, other than at Rhonda's then party or if they would peck. And now here they were again, being dared to kiss again at Rhonda's party.

Major deja-vu.

"FINE! I'll kiss the dumb ol' football headed geek!" Helga said, and crawled over to Arnold. She whispered under her breath. "Just let me do all the work."

"O-Okay." Arnold said nervously.

With that, Helga leaned forward and kissed him on the mouth, and had to control herself from turning it into a full, passionate kiss like she wanted to. Still she kept it soft and convincing, ignoring everyone's snickers in the background. Arnold held himself back from returning her kiss and also taking it a few steps too far, it took all of his strength not to give in.

Their hormones were driving them mad, and they had to stop now, before it would get out of hand, especially in front of all their friends.

Finally, they pulled apart, in a slight daze, and Helga gingerly made her way back to where she'd originally been sitting, red in the face. As was Arnold.

"Anyone laughs and you die." Helga warned, and no one said a word. She then spun the bottle.

It landed on Eugene.

"Truth or dare, jinx boy?"

"Truth, please!"

Rhonda hooked him up to the lie detector.

"Spill it, who was your first kiss?" Helga smirked.

Eugene blushed in embarrassment. "I-It was...Sheena."

Sheena giggled at the memory. "It was in 7th grade. He accidentally tripped and fell on top of me and his lips accidentally touched mine." She sighed dreamily, making eyes at him, and he blushed even more.

"AHA! I knew it!" Gerald grinned. "I knew somethin' happened that day!"

"Well, SOMEONE is bouncing back." Helga teased.

Eugene spun the bottle, which landed on Phoebe. "All right! Phoebe, truth or dare?" He smiled.

"U-Um...truth." Phoebe said softly.

Rhonda hooked up the petite girl to the lie detector, and Gerald patted her on the head supportively.

"Hmmmm..." Eugene thought for a moment. "What's your favourite ice cream flavour?"

Phoebe blushed a bit. "...Chocolate." She said, looking at Gerald.

Gerald grinned and kissed her sweetly on the forehead. Phoebe giggled and then spun the bottle before Rhonda unhooked her from the machine.

The bottle landed on Sid.

"Sid, truth or dare?"

"Dare!" Sid grinned.

"Hmm...well...." Phoebe paused to think about it for a moment. She wasn't very good with dares. She looked at Helga for help, and so her best friend crawled over to her and whispered something in her ear. Grinning, Phoebe looked back at Sid. "I dare you to run naked down the block screaming 'I'm a girl!' at the top of your lungs."

"Boy howdy! What?!" Sid cried in surprise. "You're not serious!"

Phoebe gave a nod, and everyone laughed at the idea.

"You better go with him, Stinko. To make sure he does it." Helga said.

"Okey-dokey." Stinky agreed, and went with Sid out the backdoor of the basement to get outside.

Everyone sat quietly, and then they heard Sid screaming "I'M A GIRL!" outside, which made the gang crack up in laughter so hard until Sid and Stinky returned, with Stinky laughing and Sid grumbling under his breath as he pulled his shirt back on.

"You all suck." Sid muttered, sitting back down.

"Come ON, Sid! You know you loved it! It'll make you more popular by the time we're back in school." Helga winked.

Sid just grumbled more to himself and got back into the game.

~~--~~

"Ladies and Gentlemen! On behalf of my dear beloved, I now present to you all, the NEXT game! Which will be...take it away, my love!" Curly announced dramatically, holding a hat with some slips of paper in his hands.

"Thank you, my dear Thaddeus." Rhonda bowed dramatically. "Now then, we are now going to play Seven Minutes In Heaven!"

Some of the boys hooted and hollered, while the girls all blushed.

"We'll pick one at a time, and you will go into the closet with whoever you picked out of the hat. What you do in there...well, never mind that, you just have seven minutes! If it gets heavy, I advise you go upstairs to one of our guest rooms." Rhonda went on, making everyone blush hard. "Now! I will choose at random who gets to go first to pick."

She covered her eyes with her hand, pointing her hand blindly among the group until it landed on someone. She peeked, and saw that she had picked Lila.

"All right Lila dear, you come and pick a slip, and then you will go into the closet with that person."

"I'm oh too certain that this should be interesting!" Lila grinned, and went up to pick a slip of paper from the hat Curly was holding. She checked the name.

"Now let me see it." Rhonda took the slip. "Ah! Well! Sid, you're the lucky one!"

"Boy howdy..." Sid muttered, shaking his head indifferently. He did like Lila, not in that way, and he wasn't about to steal his best friend's girl like that. Besides, he did have a girl of his own.

Sid and Lila went into the closet, and Rhonda shut the door behind them.

"Curly, time them, please."

Curly took out a stop watch and hit the button, timed for seven minutes.

About seven minutes later exactly, Sid and Lila emerged from the closet, looking just as they always did, as if they had just sat in the closet doing nothing. Which was precisely it.

It went on for a while. Harold picked Sheena, Stinky picked Gerald, Phoebe picked Gerald (they made out like crazy), Patty picked Harold (they too had a little kissy session), Helga picked Nadine, and it went on and on....

Finally, it was Arnold's turn to pick.

He hoped and prayed, hoped and prayed he would get Helga.

"All right then, you know what to do." Rhonda said as Arnold picked out a name from the hat, and handed it to her to read. "Well well! Look what we've got here! You have picked Helga!"

_YES!!!!_ Helga inwardly squealed since she too had been hoping that Arnold would pick her. She got up and tried not to skip in her step as she followed her beloved into the closet.

"Have fun, you two." Rhonda winked at them and shut the closet door, encasing them in darkness save for a small light from a bulb above them.

Arnold and Helga blushed considerably, looking at and away from each other, nervous.

"Um...we...we don't have to...do anything, football head..." Helga said softly.

"I-It doesn't matter...either way..." Arnold said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Yeah....sure...um...so..."

"So..."

Yep. This was not going as planned. Arnold knew one of them had to do something. He could see Helga was nervous, for reasons he wasn't sure. Either she wanted this too, but was afraid of his feelings. Or, she simply didn't want it and was nervous of what he would do.

No, he had to do this. He was going to make a move, and gage her reaction from it. If she liked it, great. If not, he would retreat and apologize. Either way, if it were up to them, they would spend the next seven minutes doing anything but kissing or making out.

And he had to get an answer. So did she.

With a rush of emotion, Arnold brought Helga to him, his arms around her tightly so that she wouldn't stand a chance or be able to escape, and kissed her deeply, keeping it as seductive as possible. She writhed in pleasure in his arms and fisted her fingers into his hair, and immediately opened her mouth to greet his tongue as the curious and desperate appendage traced her lips. Her arms then came around his neck, her hips grounding into his.

By her reactions, he could tell she wanted this badly. Very badly.

A moan escaped Helga, and he sunk his hips into hers, making her shudder and writhe in pure ecstasy. His tongue drew and withdrew from her mouth, giving her own a chance to chase after it, which she did, enjoying the challenge.

Oh God, she felt so good.

Oh God, he felt so good.

Both of them were in pure pleasure and ecstasy then, making out more than they ever had as children. Then again, they weren't kids anymore. Years of separation, pent up love, missing each other, sexual tension, everything, was all going into their kisses.

Pulling back for a brief moment for air, Arnold couldn't hold back anymore. In a soft whisper loud enough for her to hear, his secret came out.

"Helga...I love you."

Her eyes widened at this, and neither of them moved, still in the same position they had been in since they began making out. His words sunk in, and her heart swelled with joy, happiness, and so much love.

Tears ran down her face, and she pulled closer to him, if that was possible, since their bodies were already close as they could get.

Almost, at least.

Helga smiled widely at him, managing to utter her reply in a soft voice.

"Arnold, I...I... I love you too. I love you so much. I never stopped...!"

"Me neither." Arnold uttered, relieved, and smiled back at her before he kissed her again.

It may had been the heat of the moment, but, of course, like their previous kisses, they meant it.

Of course, they both lost track of the time, since they were still well into their making out even when Rhonda opened the door to find them still at it.

"Okay, okay, you two! Seven minutes are up now!" Rhonda chirped.

The couple broke away in slight embarrassment, and came out of the closet together, now holding hands.

"....So, you two back together now or what?" Sid finally asked.

Arnold and Helga exchanged glances, and they both nodded.

--

**Yep, I wanted them to get into a relationship and admitting they loved each other before the BIG thing happens. XD Don't worry, there's more to come as this exciting story unfolds!**


	6. The Drive In

**All right! Here it is folks, the moment you have all been waiting for! The very chapter that Arnold and Helga can't take it anymore, their sexual tensions and desire for each other comes to a head in the middle of the dark, muggy air of the drive-in.**

**So here we go!**

**Enjoy, you naughty pigs. ;) You guys have been wonderful, so no more detours! Right after their talk, we're going straight to the good stuff! No more filler. :D **

**Have fun with my first ArnoldxHelga smut. XD And do stick around for the epilogues! :D**

**Warning: Explicit sex scene! Don't say I didn't warn you. **

--

"So...."

"So..."

"I guess we need to talk." Arnold finally said softly.

Helga gave a nod. "I guess we do."

The two of them were sitting across from each other at the small table inside the treehouse they had on Mighty Pete. It was the day after Rhonda's party, where they'd had a passionate make out session in the closet during the Seven Minutes In Heaven game, admitted they still loved each other and got back together.

Now, was the time for their much-needed talk.

They both felt nervous about all this, having to get all their feelings out on the table, but they weren't nine anymore. They were sixteen, more matured since then, and had to face up to their feelings, no matter how overwhelming it all was.

"So...you first?" Helga said, looking away a little.

"Um, sure." Arnold said, nervously clasping his hands on the surface of the table. "Well, so yeah. I meant what I said...I've been in love with you all this time. When I came back here to visit, well, as much as I wanted to tell you, I was filled with a lot of uncertainty. About how you felt, how long I'd stick around, and where our relationship would go."

"Understandable." Helga nodded. "I felt the same way."

He let out a relieved sigh, and then looked down at the table to avoid her gaze. "Thing is Helga, I want to be with you. I love you, and I want to make you happy, believe me. But, since I have to leave who-knows-when, which will have us be separated again for who-knows-how-long..." His voice trailed off. "I can't do that to you, Helga. I could never do that."

"I-I know." Helga murmured, her shoulders shaking. "And I'd hate to tie you down like this here in Hillwood. You have your own life going on in San Lorenzo, and sure, you say you'll come back some day, but when? What if you change your mind and never come back at all? I don't want you feel that you have to come back just because of me, Arnold. I-I can't do that to you."

"Helga...I will always come back to you." Arnold told her very seriously. "You could never tie me down." Across the table, he held her hands. "I came back because I wanted to, and I still will in the future, depending how it all goes. I love you, and I would come back to you because I wanted to, because I wanted to be with you, not because I had to. I would pick you over anything else any day."

She looked at their joined hands, and then up at him with sad, watery eyes. "You... would? You really would?"

"I know it sounds crazy, but like I said, I do love San Lorenzo and it's great to have been there. But Hillwood being my home still stands. I would stay here if I could, I really would." Arnold's tone dropped and he looked back at their hands. "But...I can't do that right now. I wish I could, but I can't. I owe it to my parents, and the Green-Eyed people. I can't abandon them right now. But, you're the most important person in the world to me. I know you may not believe that right now, but you are, Helga. I love you. You mean everything to me, you always have."

Helga sniffled a bit and wiped away a tear from her eye. "Not all the time."

Arnold smiled a little. "I know, I know, because you used to act like you hated me. But deep down, even then I loved you. Even when you called me football head and yutz and paste-for-brains and all that."

"Oh please, no way."

"I did, I really did. Deep down I really did like you back, but it was pushed away into my subconscious, because of how you treated me. But that's not the point I'm trying to make." Arnold shook his head, getting back on track. "Helga, I think we need to figure out where we want to go with this. Okay?"

"Okay." Helga said, and took a breath. "So...you really want to be with me?"

"More than anything." Arnold said softly, taking her hand and kissing her fingers.

She smiled a little. "I want to be with you too. ...I need you, Arnold. I need you in my life. I-I've tried dating, as you know now, but, it just never worked. They're not you. I want you, Arnold. I don't want anyone else."

"I don't want anyone else either." He kissed her palm, and then around to her knuckles.

"...Arnold, I'll wait for you."

"Huh?" Arnold looked at her with surprise.

Helga took another breath and looked him in the eye. "I'll wait for you. I mean, we still only have one year of high school left. For college, I could even go down to a South American college to be there with you, or if you wanted...you could..."

"Come back here to go to college." Arnold finished for her, and smiled at the idea. "You know, I think that might work. I could visit during breaks and Holidays, and I'll be back next summer, anyway."

"Yeah...and we can still keep in touch through letters and all." Helga said, holding his hand tightly. "I-I guess we can try it. A long-distance relationship."

"Are you sure, Helga?"

"Yes, football head. If that's the price I have to pay to be with you, then so be it. I can wait."

Breaking into a smile, Arnold squeezed her hand harder, and she did in return. "I'll wait too, Helga. If you really want this, then I have no problem fulfilling your wish."

"So, then we're together now?"

"What do you think?"

Helga grinned and leaned across the table, kissing him feverishly. Arnold's heart leaped into his throat and he kissed her back with equal fervor, ending up over the table too. She grabbed onto his head, fisting her fingers into his hair, and she crawled onto the table. He did too, and they kissed madly, clinging to each other as if the other would float away.

Pulling back for air, Arnold panted and lay his forehead against hers, smiling lovingly at her.

"I love you, Helga."

"I love you too." Helga murmured sweetly, caressing his cheek. "...Arnold?"

"Yes?"

"Could you take me to the drive-in this weekend? You know, for a real date?"

Arnold chuckled. "Since when do girls ask the guy out?"

"Since times have changed, football head."

"Well then of course, M'Lady. I would indeed be glad to do so."

Helga giggled and looped her arms around his neck. "Great then. Pick me up at eight, Saturday Night. We'll go off to the drive-in, just you and I, and your Grandpa's Packard. Sound good, football head?"

Arnold smiled, holding her close around her waist. "Works for me, hammerhead."

--

This was it.

Their first real date in five years.

Of course, looking back to their little outing the previous week, it was kind of a date, deep down. But this one, was their first true date. They'd gone out to dinner at Chez Paris, and were now at the drive-in movie theatre watching _The Shining_.

Everything was going good.

Except for one thing.

It was HOT. Really hot. The air was muggy and gross that evening, temperatures had risen to about 85 degrees by now. It was awful, just awful. Helga had been so hot in her date-wear, that she had gone back to her house to change into something more comfortable, which was the very same ensemble she wore on their little outing last week. The pink tank top with the blue stripe, blue short shorts, pink shoes, and of course, topped by her pink cap.

While it did help, it wasn't doing much good for other reasons.

Arnold sat, cool as cucumber, or as cool as can be despite the heat, inwardly battling his own urges and trying to pay attention to the movie, which was showing the outdoor shot of the Overlook Hotel, or rather, in real life, Timberline Lodge. He closed his eyes, trying to imagine that they were within the snowy capes of the place, looking up to the mountains...

Funny how all those years in the jungle, the heat STILL got to him.

Oh well.

"You know," Helga finally said, breaking the silence. "I read the book version of this."

"Huh?" Arnold snapped out of his reverie, trying his hardest not to look at her. He knew if he did, the force of the heat and his hormones were going to make this a living nightmare.

"_The Shining_ is actually a novel by Stephen King. You didn't know that? The movie is an adaptation of the book." Helga looked at him with a playful smirk.

"Oh, uh, yeah, I knew that." Arnold managed, smiling sheepishly. "I read one of his books, actually."

"Oh? Which one?"

"_Under The Dome_."

"No WAY! Do you have that book? Can I borrow it? I've been trying to buy it for weeks but it's always sold out!"

Arnold laughed. "Yeah, I have it with me. You can borrow it. We'll go back to my house and you can get it there. It's really good, it-"

"Bup-bup-bup-bup! Not another word! Don't spoil it for me!" Helga laughed too, placing her finger on his mouth.

"Whatever you say, Helga. I won't."

They sat back, returning to the movie. Arnold rolled down his window a little, to try to allow in some cool air, which sadly, was not the case. No breeze was going on tonight. It was no wonder not a lot of cars were parked here at the drive-in, it was such a hot night. He was beginning to sweat a little, and not just from the heat.

Minutes passed by, which felt like hours. Every moment felt like an eternity. The heat was still getting to them both, though they hid it well, except for the sweat.

His eyes betrayed him then, and he looked tentatively at Helga. She sat there in the passenger side, cool as can be, her long, pale legs propped up on the dashboard, her feet crossed at the ankles. The blue fabric of her shorts resting up along her upper thighs, up the flat, toned expanse of her stomach. Her thin arms lay crossed against her chest. Her round, supple breasts protruded through her pink tank top, having not been there the last time he'd seen her all those years ago.

He remembered quite well, seeing her for the first time nearly two weeks ago, and hugging her tightly. He could never forget the feel of her soft breasts against his scrawny yet harder chest, and how all his lusty urges began then.

Arnold shifted slightly in his seat, looking away for a moment, before looking back at Helga at the corner of his eye. Her gaze was focused on the movie, her lips moved slightly as she chewed some bubblegum, and her blue eyes attentive to the screen. Her ever present pigtails drooped somewhat on either side of her head, due to the heat.

She looked so cute. And really pretty, in her Helga-ish way. Her revealed skin was driving him wild, and everything else that lay hidden beneath those layers were just calling his name. A gulp escaped his throat, very silently, and she did not notice.

_Damn it...I want her so badly..._ The blonde boy thought, knowing this was not good.

Especially now, looking down at his jeans, he could see now that he had a growing hard-on. The heat was definitely getting to his head, for sure. Accompanied by his lust for her, he knew, he knew that it was going to make him do something he would regret.

He had to hold it back. He had to. Closing his eyes, he tried to concentrate on willing his hard-on away.

"WHOA!"

"Huh?!" Arnold was so startled by Helga's sudden outburst, as well as how she then flung herself onto his lap, which of course, sprang his erection back to life. "Helga?"

Helga panted hard, her forehead dripping with sweat, down to her collarbone. She looked at him, her arms tightly clasped around his neck, and right below her, she was sitting on something hard. And it wasn't the hand-break.

"Arnold..." Helga spoke softly, looking at him with surprise. "Are you...are you _hard_?!"

Oh boy.

"Helga, I..." Arnold uttered, and knew he had no excuse for it. The cat was out of the bag. "...I'm so sorry."

Helga blinked, still surprised, but not because he was hard. He was apologizing for something that wasn't his fault, but most of all, he was hard over her. Did that mean he wanted her too? Was the heat getting to him that much too? It was sure getting to her.

She wanted him ten times more badly than before. If she didn't want him bad before, she sure did now. And being Helga, she would eat him alive if she could.

And boy she wasn't afraid now.

This was it. She was not waiting a second longer.

Immediately she straddled him against the seat, grinding herself over his hard on, which in turn made him gasp in surprise as he looked at her with shock.

"H-Helga? What are you doing?"

"Shut up, just shut up..." Helga whispered passionately. "Oh _God_ Arnold I want you...I want you so bad...I want you inside me..." Her chest pressed flush against his as she leaned closer. "Please, Arnold... _Fuck_ me...no....make love to me, please..."

This had to be another dream. It just had to be.

But it dawned on him. It wasn't.

This was real. Helga G. Pataki, his lifelong classmate, his girlfriend, the love of his life, the very girl he'd been lusting over for a while, was begging him for it.

Helga, his true love, soon to be his lover.

And that was all he needed to hear.

In a rush of emotions and heat, Arnold grabbed her closer and kissed her madly, which she returned and clutched at his head tightly. His hips lifted from the seat, and she brought her legs around his waist, and fell back along the seat, pulling him down with her. Their mouths and tongues clashed, and this was slowly becoming their final moments as virgins.

Her sweaty hands ran up his shirt, caressing his chest lovingly, her legs tightening around his waist, grinding herself against his now painfully obvious bulge, feeling the pleasure course through her, especially at the sound of his loud groan between their mouths. Helga gasped between their mouths as she felt his hand slip up her tank top and fondle her bare breast.

Finally they pulled away for air, panting hard as they looked at each other with wonder and curiosity.

"Helga...a-are you sure...?" Arnold panted out.

Helga managed a nod. "Yes Arnold...I-I love you, and I want you...no, I need you, Arnold...I want you inside me."

Smiling a little, he kissed her gently on the lips and then lay his forehead against hers. "I love you too, and I want you too... S-Sorry I didn't bring protection."

"Don't worry..." Helga closed her eyes. "You're clean, right?"

"Of course."

"Then go ahead...please..."

Arnold gave a nod and attacked at her neck, kissing and suckling the soft skin there, occasionally running his tongue along the crevice of her neck and shoulder junction, a sensitive spot. She moaned under his ministrations and his touches, the pleasure rushing through her like a wave. Her hands grasped at her tank top, lifting it up a few inches to expose her breasts, and he rose up to watch what she was doing.

Smiling a little, she rolled her tank top up to her collarbone, her breasts on full display to him.

"I wanted no one but you to see them and touch them, football head. Now they're all yours."

Arnold chuckled a bit and kissed her on the cheek. "I'm flattered, Helga. But I don't just want them. I want you, all of you. Inside, and out. I love you."

Her blush increased and she smiled more at him. "I love you too. And I want all of you, too. So go on, my body is all yours."

"And mine is yours, too."

Slowly his hand wandered down, and he kissed and licked her chest, teasing her. His hand wandered along the light curvature of her hips, and then around to her stomach, and then he went for the kill.

His hand went down her shorts, and he played with the curls of her pubic hair, and along the folds and lips of her womanhood.

"...You're not wearing anything under these clothes? No underwear?" Arnold asked in surprise.

Helga giggled. "Nope. It was way too hot for that."

A light smirk pulled at his lips. "Is that the only reason?"

"Maybe." She smirked back at him.

With a chuckle, he then gently pulled down her shorts a few inches to expose her womanhood, admiring it under the moonlight, and the light from the movie screen that was still going on. The sticky substance leaked gently from it, he could feel it on his hand. Then slowly, he parted her folds, making her gasp lightly, and then he gently stuck a finger inside of her.

"A-Arnold!!" Helga cried, her legs spreading a little wider.

Shocked, Arnold looked down at her and pulled his finger away. "Helga, are you okay? Did I hurt you?"

She looked at him for a moment and snickered. "Silly. You need to know the difference between a pleasured and pained cry. Get back in there, you."

With relief, he laughed a little and did as he was told. "Whatever you say, Helga."

Helga writhed in pure pleasure and ecstasy as his finger explored the nether depths of her womanhood, feeling along the warm and wet region. Her hands grasped at his shoulders for leverage, her moans escalating more and more by the second. He then found the little nub, jumble-packed with nerves, and had remembered reading of it when he was taught Sex Education back in San Lorenzo. His home school teacher, though a bit prudish, was able to explain it as thoroughly as possible.

Though he couldn't remember the name of it... What was it again?

Still, it seemed to be the spot she liked to be touched most, since she cried out louder when he played with her there. He smiled, and went back to kissing and gently nibbling along her neck, playing with her nub at the same time. He wanted to pleasure her, wanted to make her feel amazing. In turn, seeing her pleased made him pleased, too.

"A-Arnold...Arnold...ohhh Arnold...!!!" Helga moaned loudly, her head digging into the seat. "Aahh!! Arnold! I-I'm going to-!"

She cut herself off as her hips rose upward in a jolt, her grip tightened on his shoulders, and she cried out in a climactic moan as she came, her inner juices spilling out of her womanhood. A bit got on his fingers, and he left some there to act as a natural lubricant. He licked the substance, all the while looking down at her.

Helga panted hard beneath him, wisps of her loose blonde hair clung to her face, she sweat more, her lips were parted slightly, and her eyes were hazed with lust and pleasure. She looked up at him, managing a shaky smile.

"You okay?" He asked her, smiling back.

"Y-...Yeah..." Helga managed. "I'm more than okay...Now, off with your pants..."

Arnold blushed, but gave a slow nod. "Okay, Helga." He gingerly lowered his pants down a few inches down his hips, revealing blue boxers with Tweety bird on them. At Helga's baffled look, he blushed more in embarrassment. "...Shut up. Grandma bought them for me."

"Cute." Helga smirked, reaching down to play with his erected manhood through his boxers. "Now how's about you get inside me, hmm?"

He shuddered hard, trying to keep his balance, groaning in pleasure from her touch. Her pale fingers then took the waistband of his boxers and pulled them down his hips to reveal his own manhood.

Helga, having seen Arnold naked back when they'd been nine by accident, was quite taken aback. Oh yes, he wasn't that same little boy. He'd grown quite a lot not just in height...

_Wow, he's so big...well that sure takes me back..._ She smiled a little at the thought.

"Um....Helga?" Arnold did feel a bit odd being practically naked in front of her, though it was what he wanted to do.

She giggled, gently playing with it with her fingers. "I see you've grown down there too, Arnold..."

He blushed a little bit more. "I uh, guess so... Um, pretty different from the first time, huh?"

"Well, bodies grow. You were nine the first time, so it's no wonder it's changed so much now." Helga giggled, and pulled her hand away. "So, you mind putting Arnold Junior inside Helga Junior now?"

At that, he laughed a little and positioned himself over her. "Helga, that sounded so wrong. You do know that, right?"

"Well doi! Of course! Now, less talky, more sexy."

Carefully and slowly, he entered her, going at snails pace. He knew that it always hurt the first time for a girl, so he was extra careful. Helga hissed in pain, gripping his shoulders painfully. Panic rose in him and he withdrew, leaning down toward her and cupping her face gently.

"Are you all right? Did I hurt you?" He asked in concern, stroking her cheek.

"I-It's okay..." Helga uttered, opening her eyes a bit. "It's supposed to hurt...the first time...I'll be okay...it'll pass."

"I'll be gentle." Arnold promised, and kissed her on the lips, carefully entering her again, this time much slower. His other hand then played with her breast, to help stimulate her and make up for the pain.

She moaned appreciatively in his mouth, holding to him tightly as she tried to ignore the pain, which was hard since it felt very strange to have something far larger and thicker than a finger or a vibrator enter her down there.

Slowly, the pain decreased, and all she felt was the closeness between them, the very essence of him. She couldn't believe this was happening, they were making love, finally! It was a dream come true.

Amidst the pleasure, tears rolled down her cheeks, her hold on him was more gentle. Taking it the wrong way, Arnold looked down at her with concern and kissed her tears away.

"Helga, are you okay? Why are you crying..? Are you hurt?"

Helga shook her head and smiled at him through her tears. "No. I'm fine. ...I'm just so happy... I love you, Arnold..."

Relieved, and happy as she was, Arnold smiled back and kissed her sweetly. "I love you too, Helga...I'm happy too, and I'm glad you're happy."

"G'head Arnold, it doesn't hurt anymore...please..."

With that, he slowly withdrew from her, and then went back in, thrusting in and out of her, gaining rhythm and speed. Her inner walls felt so amazing, so warm on his manhood, and how they clamped down on the appendage, it felt like nothing he'd ever felt before. This was it, this was the big stuff. He was making love to Helga, fully and thoroughly. And he was going to make her remember it for all time.

Her legs spread more, and came up around his waist, allowing him to penetrate her even deeper.

"H-Harder, Arnold....Harder...."

"O-Okay, Helga..."

His thrusting speed increased, their moans intermixed with each other, her grip moved down to his back, clutching at his shirt for dear life. Their lips clashed together as they got louder, barely remembering the fact that they were indeed in the middle of a drive-in theatre in his grandfather's Packard, but despite that, it didn't matter. All that mattered was what was happening now.

The pleasure built up within them, their hips lifted and lowered to meet each other's, they were gaining speed and getting closer to their peaks.

Helga now fisted her fingers into his golden locks, in pure ecstasy as they kissed madly and violently throughout their lovemaking, feeling like a couple of tigers in the middle of the jungle. Arnold held her to him, tightly, as he thrust in and out of her, and could feel that she was approaching her climax. He was as well, but he held it back, holding himself at bay so that she would experience it first.

They broke their lips apart for a moment to breathe, and then kissed each other passionately again, going faster and harder. The pleasure rose inside, and Helga cried out between their mouths, thankfully muffled so that no one would hear unless they were in the car. Her lovejuices spilled out and onto his manhood, and she went taut beneath him.

Soon to follow, the wave of climax washed over him like a tsunami and he groaned her name out under his breath as he broke away from her and released his seed inside of her, his muscles contracting, and then he collapsed on top of her.

They both lay there across the seat of the Packard, panting hard as they worked to regain control of their breathing. The sounds of their panting, as well as the movie still playing from the radio, were the only things heard then. The heat had not decreased, especially between them, as their bodies were now sweaty, but neither of them cared.

Finally, Arnold lifted his head and rose his body a little, looking down at Helga as it now sunk in. They were no longer virgins. They had just made love. They had answered to their frequent sexual desires, and now felt very complete.

"A-Arnold..." Helga finally spoke out, smiling at him widely. "That was...that was _incredible_..."

Letting out a breath, Arnold smiled lovingly and kissed her on the cheek before he carefully withdrew from her, pulling his pants and boxers pack up. She pulled her shorts up and her tank top down, and sat up with him. She then threw her arms around him tightly in a loving embrace.

"I love you, Arnold...thank you, that was the best time of my life...well, so far."

Arnold smiled more, and hugged her back, stroking her hair. Her hat had fallen off her head, sitting on the seat, and her pink bow sat there in its place, droopy as her hair.

"I love you too, Helga. That was amazing...although even that's way too small a word. You were incredible."

"No way, I just sat back and let you do all the work!" Helga laughed, pulling back a bit to look at him. "Come on, you were the big man of this."

"Well Helga, you know what they say, it takes two to tango." Arnold winked at her.

"Ah, touché." Helga smirked. "Hmmm....tell me Arnold, do you remember a certain time back in the fourth grade? You know, April Fool's? Dance? Pool? Bliiiindd?"

Arnold paused, thinking that over, and then realization dawned on him and he laughed heartily. "Oh God, how can I forget? You pretended to be blind and then we danced the tango so I could distract you while Gerald opened the pool so I could throw you in."

"Hey, I wasn't pretending to be blind ALL the time."

"You weren't?"

"Nope! I was actually blind for about ten or fifteen minutes. My sight came back in the nurse's office. But anyway, that's not the point. The point is..." Helga smirked more, playing with his hair. "Now that I look back, I think our tango back then was a little too sexual."

Arnold snickered. "You know, now that you mention it, I think you're right. But of course, we were nine, I don't think we knew any better."

"Suuuuure we didn't." Helga laughed. "Face it Arnold, you were sexually frustrated back then and you know it!"

"Was not!" Arnold laughed with her. "I was nine!"

"Oh come on. You must've FELT it, but you couldn't pinpoint it."

"Well, touché."

They both laughed and hugged each other some more, never once to forget their first time, and taking the step of now being lovers. They had taken their relationship to the next level, and not once did they regret it.


	7. Epilogue: Here To Stay

**Hey you guys! :D Thank you all SO much for sticking around and reading this as it went along. It was so much fun to do, and sad to say, it's now all over and done.**

**So, enjoy the epilogue! Thank you all for reading this fic, I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it. :3 Thank you so much for your feedback and support!**

**Also, maybe, and this is a big MAYBE, there might be a sequel. Who knows? We'll see. :)**

**--**

"You sure you'll be all right?"

"Don't worry, football head, I'll be just fine getting back."

Arnold smiled and hugged Helga warmly, holding her close. She sighed happily and hugged back, laying her head on his shoulder. They stayed like that a few moments, in the doorway of the boarding house, with Miles and Stella watching in the background, both smiling.

"Just like Dad and Mom..." Miles mused, and Stella giggled.

"See you later, Arnold." Helga said as she pulled back.

Arnold kissed her lightly, and looked deep into her eyes. "I'll see you later. I love you, Helga."

"I love you too, Arnold." She kissed his nose, and then descended down the steps, waving goodbye to them before walking off down the darkened streets of their neighbourhood.

Miles and Stella waved back to her, and couldn't help but chuckle a little as Arnold watched after her for a few moments, a dreamy, lovesick look on his face. He then closed the door and let out a contented sigh.

"Well, I'm going to turn in early tonight. Night Mom, night Dad." Arnold said and stretched his arms a little.

"Goodnight, son." Miles smiled and patted his son on the shoulder. "See you tomorrow."

"Have a good sleep, Arnold." Stella kissed him on the cheek. "We'll see you in the morning."

Arnold smiled and hugged his parents, kissing them both on the cheek before he went upstairs to his room. An evening spent hanging out with his girlfriend and the entire household, including his parents, it was an awesome evening. He was going to bed pretty happy that evening.

As he got to his room, seeing all the pictures, maps and artifacts from San Lorenzo and various countries they'd been to all over South and Central America, his heart sank as he remembered then, that this wouldn't last forever. They were soon to go back, probably in a week or two by now. Since being here, back in Hillwood with his friends, seeing everything he missed, and especially the love of his life, had just made him realize how much he missed it here and how much he just wanted to come back and stay here for good. With of course, occasional travels to San Lorenzo and other places around the world.

Sighing, he changed into his PJ's and sat with forlorn on his bed, taking out his own little journal he'd started since his life in San Lorenzo. He wrote occasionally, usually at night in his bed in the hut he and his parents lived in, talking about his new life in San Lorenzo, about the things they did with the Green Eyed people when they were let in to see their hidden city, their travels around the jungle and many other places, and of course, how much he missed Hillwood and his friends. He also often wrote about Helga, how much he missed her, still loved her, and longed to be with her again, and how great he felt since finding out he was in love with her.

Being with her these past couple of weeks, and officially getting back together with her, were definitely the highlight of his visit back here. Arnold smiled at the thought, and wrote down in his journal.

_July 14_

_We had another great evening, playing some board games and sharing stories all around with my parents, grandparents, and the rest of the household. Helga was positively beaming all night long, which was great to see. I love nothing more than seeing her happy, and she was. She really was. During my absence, she had come over to the boarding house often and made friends with my grandparents and the rest of the boarders. She loved them all, despite how weird they can be, and they loved her too._

_Being with Helga is definitely the highlight of this visit, that's for sure. I'm so glad we got all our feelings sorted out, especially that night, a week ago, when we made love for the first time. I'll never forget it. It was the best night of my life._

_So far._

_In about a week or two, Mom and Dad and I are going back to San Lorenzo. As much as I love it there, and I love the people, the Green-Eyes, I really am dreading it. I'm so happy here in Hillwood, it's like I never left. I wish I didn't have to go, I'll miss it and everyone too much. Especially Helga. Leaving her back then was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. I don't know if I can do it again. _

"Knock knock, short man!" Phil greeted as he came into the room. "Just came to say goodnight to my favourite grandson!"

Arnold smiled a little and put his journal aside. "Grandpa, I'm your only grandson."

"Then you don't have to worry about competition!" Phil laughed, sitting down on his bed. "You all right, Arnold?"

"Yeah, I'm okay." Arnold nodded. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Call me an old fool, but you and your Mom and Dad are going back to San Lorenzo soon, aren't ya?" Phil said, and nodded toward Arnold's collection of photos, maps and artifacts. "I take it you'll miss it here, huh?"

Arnold nodded sadly, looking down at his lap. "Yeah, pretty much. Grandpa, you know I love Mom and Dad, and I love San Lorenzo, and I care a lot about the Green Eyes, I always have. But..."

"But you're not looking forward to leaving Hillwood, your friends, and your little girlfriend behind again." Phil finished for him knowingly.

"Exactly." Arnold confirmed, and sighed heavily. "But I know I have to. I owe it to my parents, and the Green Eyes, and everyone else we help. And I want to, I'm always glad to help other people, it's made me happy, and I love it there. But..."

"The little lady is more important to you." Phil finished for him again, and gave a knowing wink.

"That's exactly it. I love Helga so much, and she means the world to me. I really don't want to leave her again, Grandpa. I know we said that we'd wait for each other, and I promised her I would come back to Hillwood for good someday. But still, I have to make her wait again. And I don't want to wait either. Not now, not when our relationship is better than it has ever been. I love her, Grandpa, and I want to stay here and be with her. I wish I didn't have to leave."

Phil ruffled his hair, noticing the tears in his grandson's eyes then.

"Well short man, all you can do is keep each other close to your hearts even while you're gone from each other. And hey, the little lady loves you like I've never seen someone love before....other than Pookie and I, of course." He laughed, and Arnold smiled a bit. "The point is Arnold, sometimes we have to make sacrifices for the ones we love."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. It's not like I'll be gone forever. I planned to come back here for college, anyway."

"There you go! Now that's not a long way off, is it? So don't worry about it, short man. Pretty soon you'll be back here for good and have your little lady back in your arms where she belongs!"

Arnold smiled at the thought and sighed happily. "I guess I'll be counting by the seconds for that day."

"You sure will, short man." Phil winked at him and then stood up. "Well! Off we go, time for bed! Goodnight, Arnold."

"Night, Grandpa. See you in the morning. ...And thanks, thanks for listening to me, Grandpa."

"Anytime, short man!" Phil gave him a thumbs up and then left the room, closing the door behind him.

Exhaling, Arnold fell back onto his pillow, looking up at the dark sky through the skylight. Though he felt better, he still felt the tinge of sadness of leaving his grandparents, the boarders, his friends, everything in Hillwood, behind again soon. It was not going to be easy, most especially with the way things turned out.

Still. He hoped everything would turn out all right in the end.

The moon hung overhead in the sky, a full moon. Arnold stared up at it, just as he did back in San Lorenzo when he would look out his window and see the moon up in the night sky.

Little did he know that at this very moment, Helga was also looking up at the moon, dreading the soon departure of her beloved.

--~~--

The next morning, Arnold came downstairs, greeted his family in the kitchen and poured himself a bowl of cereal. Still, as he took in his parents, he noticed they looked very serious about something.

"Mom? Dad?" Arnold questioned, sitting down at the table and pouring milk into his cereal. "Is something wrong?"

Miles shook his head. "Oh, no. Nothing's wrong. We just wanted to talk to you about something, son."

"Huh? About what?" Arnold asked, confused.

"Well Arnold, your father and I have been doing a lot of thinking, and we've talked about it a lot lately." Stella said, placing her hand over Arnold's.

"What do you mean? I don't understand."

"Arnold, we know that you're not looking forward to going back to San Lorenzo with us." Miles told him.

Uh-oh.

"W-Wait, what?" Arnold was shocked, afraid his parents were going to get upset with him about it. "How did you know?"

"Arnold, we're your parents, we just know these things." Stella said. "And we overheard you and Phil talking last night."

"You did? Oh, Mom, Dad, I'm sorry...I didn't mean to-"

"Arnold, calm down, it's okay." Miles smiled. "We're not mad at you. We can definitely understand how you must feel. It wasn't easy for us to do the same thing 15 years ago."

Arnold gave a slow nod, knowing that story all too well.

"We know you love San Lorenzo, and all the people, and the Green Eyes, and they all love you too." Stella said gently. "And you have done so much, you really have. I don't think we could have asked for anything more."

"But you really don't want to go back, do you?" Miles said, serious.

A little ashamed, Arnold mutely nodded, looking down at his cereal.

Miles and Stella exchanged glances, and nodded to one another before looking back at their son with warm, understanding smiles.

"Then we'll stay here."

Arnold's head shot up like a gun had gone off. "What?!"

"We'll stay here in Hillwood." Stella said. "I think it's time that you lived your own life, Arnold. Besides, wouldn't you rather face your senior year back in school?"

"Mom, Dad....I...."

"And I know it won't be easy leaving behind such an awesome girl like Helga." Miles said, winking at his son. "She's a keeper, Arnold. You're going to marry that girl someday."

Arnold turned deep red, a sheepish smile pulling at his lips. "I...well...um..."

"Miles, come now, he's only sixteen!" Stella playfully scolded him, giggling. She patted Arnold's hair affectionately. "We love you Arnold, and if you want to stay in Hillwood, then we'll stay. Don't worry about it. We'll go back and visit San Lorenzo from time to time every couple of months. But you're right. Our life and your life is here in Hillwood."

"Mom, Dad...I...thank you, thank you so much!" Arnold hugged them both tightly. "Thanks so much!" He pulled away and ran for the back door.

"Where are you going, short man?" Phil asked from the stove.

"I have to take care of something!" Arnold said, and ran out the door.

"Arnold wait! You forgot to-" Miles called after him, but he was already gone. "...Change out of your pajamas."

He looked back at Stella and started to laugh, Stella joined in and so did Phil and Gertie.

--

Helga was sitting on her dad's easy chair, still in her nightgown, and drinking some milk out of a mug and reading the paper while watching the news. Bob had gone to work early, and Miriam was in the kitchen making breakfast, humming to herself cheerfully as she did so.

"Helga, do you want some bacon with your eggs?" She called to her.

"Sure, Mom." Helga replied.

There was a knock on the door, which surprised Helga, since no one was expecting anyone, especially at 9:30 in the morning. Still, she got up, put on her nightgown's slip, went to the door and answered it.

"Arnold?!" Helga gasped, taken aback, not just the fact he was here, but also by the fact he was in his PJ's. Which were light blue. It reminded her of back in the fourth grade when he had shown up at Gerald Field the morning after he said he'd be visiting his cousin Arnie, in his pajamas, and was acting very strange. Not to mention he had hugged her for the third time that year for no reason at all.

"Helga...!" Arnold breathed, and hugged her tightly, taking in the scent of her hair.

"Arnold..." Helga giggled and hugged him back. "You're awfully affectionate this morning. What's up?"

Pull back a bit, he grinned widely. "I've got some awesome news I wanted to tell you."

"You just found out I'm pregnant?" Helga joked.

His eyes widened. "What?! You're pregnant?!"

Helga laughed heartily, and Miriam came out of the kitchen in shock as she overheard.

"Helga?! What did he just say?!"

"Mom mom, don't worry, I'm not." Helga assured. "I was only joking. Sorry about that, didn't mean to freak you guys out."

"Oh, okay, honey." Miriam sighed in relief. "Just please don't joke about that kind of thing, it's very serious."

Helga gave a nod. "I know, Mom. Sorry about that, I didn't mean to scare you guys like that."

Miriam retreated back to the kitchen, and Helga turned back to Arnold and giggled.

"Sorry, football head, I couldn't resist. So what's the news you wanted to tell me?"

"Well, it was pretty surprising to hear, but here it is." Arnold took her hands and looked into her eyes. "Helga, I'm staying here in Hillwood."

Helga's eyes widened. "What? You-You are?"

He nodded, grinning. "Yep. Mom and Dad decided that we should stay in Hillwood for good now. We'll visit San Lorenzo from time to time, to make sure the Green Eyes are okay, and since they recently finished construction on a dandy hospital not far from where the Green Eyes reside, as well as more support, it's okay if we stay. So I'll be facing my senior year here in Hillwood, and the whole gang can now get back together. Most of all, we can finally pick up where we left off."

Tears brimmed in her eyes, and she threw herself at him in a tight hug, knocking him up against the doorway. He laughed and hugged her back, kissing her head and holding her close.

"Arnold...that's...that's just wonderful!" Helga cried happily. "I love you!"

"I love you too." Arnold smiled, wiping her tears and and kissing her passionately. She kissed him back and threw her arms around his neck, pressing herself closer to him.

They kissed, kissed and kissed in the doorway of her home, in their PJ's, and carried on, not even hearing Miriam calling to Helga that breakfast was ready. Finally, the two young lovers were never to be separated ever again.

The End


End file.
